


with great power (I could do hell of a lot more)

by Ketita



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Drama, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-13
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2017-12-29 07:49:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 47,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1002831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ketita/pseuds/Ketita
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erwin's little team of superheroes aren't exactly the most popular - they don't play by the rules; they get stuff done.<br/>When they find out that the villain they've been tracking (what kind of name is Levi for a supervillain, anyway?) is actually a shapeshifter, things get rough. Erwin might be strong, but he's not equipped to take down a shapeshifter on his own, especially one so hell-bent on making his life miserable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Deutsch available: [Mit großer Kraft (könnte ich verdammt viel mehr tun)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1099959) by [Felicita](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Felicita/pseuds/Felicita)



> This fic is, once again, thanks to and the fault of [Zee](levisnbuttons.tumblr.com), but I also must thank [kyrandis](kyrandis.tumblr.com) for the encouragement and help (like, with the title). 
> 
> It's basically going to be a genfic, though there will be plenty of interaction with Levi+Erwin, and later Eren and Petra and the rest of the team. 
> 
> Also check out [some cool drawings by Zee](http://zee-art-fart.tumblr.com/post/62629653259/so-jochai-and-i-were-discussing-about-superhero) (and encourage her to do more!). 
> 
> I hope you enjoy :)

It had been deceptively easy to fight Levi off, that first time. Levi surprised him when his hands suddenly turned into blades, but Erwin countered by tearing up a piece of floor and throwing it at him. It should have crushed him – screw trying to bring a villain to justice, Erwin had been after him for months now and better have Levi dead than escaped – but Levi didn't even dodge, just turned into liquid and oozed out from underneath, reconstituted himself in a flash and was lunging towards Erwin's throat once more.

Erwin learned several important things in that moment: Levi could do full-body shifting, he could do it _fast_ , and he was quick on the uptake. This explained a lot about how Levi consistently managed to sneak into high-security facilities and steal weapons of mass destruction. Now if only Erwin could survive this fight to share the information with the rest of the Scouts…

This time, when Levi attacked, Erwin pretended to dodge and managed to get him with an electrified dart. Levi jerked back, apparently unprepared for the electricity, and Erwin took the opportunity to jump, slamming upwards through several concrete floors and bounding to the roof where his jet was parked. Intel was the priority, here. As of now, nobody but him knew that Levi was a shapeshifter, and he couldn't risk that information dying with him. Erwin was strong, enough to jump buildings and crumble concrete, but shapeshifters were tricky. It would be easier to take him down with backup. 

Erwin didn't like grandstanding. The Scouts worked as a team because they shared a philosophy: get the job done, get it done efficiently. Honor could be doled out when the villains were gone. 

Erwin threw himself in and gunned the engine, hearing noises behind him. Time to get out of here. He threw the plane forward and into the sky, just in time to see Levi's dark form scramble onto the roof, extra appendages melting back into his body.

"Widget? This is Commander, do you copy?"

The radio crackled to life immediately with her voice. "Commander? What's your status?"

"Getting the hell out. Levi's a shapeshifter, you hear? I repeat, he's a shifter. He can weaponize his body, he turned liquid and resolidified, he's _fast_ , he's -" Erwin caught a glimpse of the rearview screen and started cursing. 

"What is it?" Widget's voice came sharp and tense.

"He's chasing the jet. _He turned into a dragon_."

Levi was obviously displeased with his secret being out, and determined to take Erwin down. Not today, though. Erwin flipped a few switches and fired, sending a veritable arsenal of missiles at the dragon.

He was fast enough to follow the plane, but apparently not maneuverable enough to dodge such a large explosion. At least some of the explosives must have connected, because Erwin saw a small form dropping from beneath the clouds of smoke. He shot two more homing missiles just to make sure, though it was optimistic to think that Levi'd go down so easily. 

At least he hadn't managed to turn into a _fire-breathing_ dragon.

\---

Widget, of course, was insufferable with enthusiasm. "A true shapeshifter? Liquids, inorganics, and a full body transformation? That's amazing! I've never heard of one with that much versatility!" and proceeded to dance off in paroxysms of joy. 

"What does he look like?" Mike (excuse me, Bloodhound) asked. 

Erwin stretched, calmer now that he was back in the safety of the base, where they could put together a plan to take Levi down once and for all. A better one than last time. Though to be fair, the last plan had gotten them their first direct encounter with Levi and revealed his abilities, so it couldn't be called a waste. 

"A bit shorter than me, probably about here," he motioned around nose level. "Pitch black all over, even his teeth were black, except for red eyes. I didn't see any costume lines. Thin build. Very utilitarian, though, no frills, no fangs, nothing standing out except for the eyes. I have no reason to believe that's his true form."

Widget was back. "You mean you think he was double-shifting? Incredible! He might be one of the most advanced shifters in the _world_."

"Hopefully soon he'll be one of the most _dead_ shifters in the world," Eren growled. 

"He'll be a pain to kill," Wildfire chimed in, worrying at the edge of one her gloves. "If he's really that versatile. How will we even find him?"

"I grappled with him. Bloodhound might be able to catch the scent."

Mike's sense of smell was legendary, able to track across entire countries, if given enough time. 

"We'll have to take him down fast and hard. Wildfire, your talents might help – fire hot enough could do the trick." Erwin's thoughts spun, trying to come up with ideas. The best way to take down a shifter was with a multi-pronged attack: it was difficult to defend against multiple types of powers at the same time. 

Erwin sat back and reviewed his troops, arrayed around the table. 

The heaviest hitter on their team was probably Eren (Titan, he reminded himself), with his healing factor and ability to transform into a fifteen-meter-tall giant. The downside, of course, was that his talents were just a bit choppy and unreliable, and he'd gone berserk more than once.

Erwin himself had super-strength, but nothing like the big leaguers who were bulletproof and could fly. The greater superhero community generally looked down on him for supplementing his powers with fancy tech, but he had decided long ago that he gave no damns. He got the job done. 

Mike could track almost any scent with his nose, but that was the extent of his supernatural abilities. In combat, he fought with twin blades, and relied on his own human strength, and the gadgetry Widget supplied.

Widget was brilliant at manipulating technology, able to coax almost any kind of machine into turning into some other kind of machine, and with an insatiable curiosity about… everything, really. Anything to do with infiltration, and of course, supplying gadgetry was a cinch, but she had neglected to work up to battle skills on Mike's level. Her whippet-like build didn't give her the advantage Mike's natural bulk did, though she was no slouch at hand-to-hand.

Wildfire was a pyrokinetic (fitting, with her strawberry blond hair just short of a true redhead), and reasonably skilled at throwing fireballs and controlling flames, though she wasn't able to fly either, and couldn't reach the intense heat that some of the others could. Not yet, at least. She seemed sweet, but was a real threat when she got going.

Last was – ah, there was Carnage, just come in. He could manipulate his own blood, and even coax it to be corrosive. A useful talent, though it came with the price of having to damage himself to use it. His arms were already scarred over. 

The fact was, none of them were the most powerful on their own, but together, they made an effective team, synchronized in battle on a level most other teams could only dream of. With careful coordination, they could take down this shapeshifter.

(Erwin permitted himself a moment of fantasy: what would it be like to have a shapeshifter of that caliber on his team, what they would be able to achieve…)

"Just get me close enough and I'll corrode him," Carnage was saying.

"He'd stab you before you could do any real damage," Wildfire scolded.

"If he stabbed me, it would be his downfall!" Carnage said. "All I need is some blood-"

"But you'd be _dead_."

"What kind of name is 'Levi' for a supervillain, anyway?" Titan grumbled. 

"It could be his actual name," Mike mused.

"But that's stupid! It's just _asking_ to be found out!"

"It goes along with Commander's idea that he's changing his looks!" Widget was excited once more. "He's supremely confident we won't be able to track him down, so confident he doesn't care about using his own name! We _have_ to find him."

"We need to figure out a way to contain him." When Erwin spoke, everybody else fell silent, listening. "If we can't hand him over to Interpol, we'll take him down. He showed some susceptibility to electricity-"

"Assuming he can't transform into a conductor." Widget's eyes gleamed. She looked far too excited at the prospect.

"If he's a superconductor, we can assume he'd be vulnerable to other things at that moment. Titan and I can take care of the physical side. Most things aren't impervious to flame, so we can count on Wildfire to do damage, or at least help slow him down. And if he can become flame-retardant, that doesn't necessarily mean he's acid-retardant. I doubt we'll be able to do this without hurting him badly, but Widget, please try to come up with options. The more we can keep our distance, the safer we'll be."

Everybody nodded soberly. 

"Bloodhound, I'm relying on you to find him. Carnage, try to figure out where he's likely to strike next, so we can intercept him there. Until then, there isn't much for us to do except prepare."

"I'm off to scavenge parts, then! Wildfire, Eren, you coming to help?" Widget said, hopping to her feet (Erwin suppressed the urge to remind her to use codenames). "Let's see if one of those billionaires with the fancy suits has thrown away anything good, lately! I'll try to whip up a freeze ray."

The two of them got to her feet, but a thought made Erwin speak up. "Could Titan join you later? I want to talk to him about something." He only emphasized Eren's codename a little. 

"Make sure he's back for dinner!" Wildfire turned back to say.

"Because otherwise there won't be anybody to make it," Eren grumbled. Ever since Wildfire had officially become Eren's foster mother, the boy had calmed down a bit. Erwin had to admit she was doing a good job (despite Eren's constant complaining about how she made him cook). It had been no small sacrifice on Wildfire's part – she was young and unmarried, and it took a special guy to look past her fostering a gangly teenager with rage issues. 

Mike and Carnage left as well – Mike to do his nose magic, Carnage to do some hacking and see what he could come up with. That left Erwin and Eren to exit the base, climbing to the roof of the abandoned warehouse that hid it.

Early autumn brought cold to the air and rain had cleared some of the stink from this part of town, but it was still a few months until snow would make it temporarily beautiful. Against the skyline the imposing Steele building was visible, a clear monument to superhero billionaires who could afford fancy headquarters. And that was just the ones who were public about it – Erwin had his suspicions about some of the other goofy rich people who were blatant about their love of partying and just a bit too buff under their expensive suits. 

Still, his Scouts were the first to have a shot at taking Levi down, and Erwin knew for a fact that there were several others currently eyeing him. 

"So, you wanted me for something…?" Eren said, calling Erwin's attention back. 

"Yes." Erwin turned to him, taking in Eren's still-calm expression behind his mask, and considered that perhaps this had been a miscalculation. Eren wouldn't take it well. 

He had brought the boy up here, though, so he might as well.

"I thought that, given your background, you might have some thoughts about Levi."

"My… background?" Eren's eyes widened, and he took a step back, arms rising defensively. "My background is nothing like his! I was never a villain! I never cooperated, even when they killed my mother! And when we broke out and the others decided to wipe out humanity, I didn't join them either! I'm _not like him!_ "

"I didn't say you were." Erwin refused to let himself be ruffled. "But you've known people on the other side personally, unlike the rest of us."

"That doesn't mean anything. Why would you even think this Levi asshole is anything like Reiner, Annie, or Bertholdt? What do you want with him? This guy isn't going to come quietly, you said it yourself, he'll be put down one way or another."

Erwin didn't answer, but Eren's jaw dropped open slightly with realization. 

"You're crazy! You can't want to _recruit_ him? This isn't some two-bit bank robber who lost his job! He's a _supervillain_."

"He'd live," Erwin said, a bit reluctantly. He considered the world around him and couldn't help but think that many of the people who misused their powers were misguided and hurt. 

Of course, in reality, leopards didn't change their spots and when they were out of prison they went right back to trying to blow up the world or whatever. 

That was why the Scouts had more kills than arrests.

"We can't trust him! Why is he different from any other villain we've gotten rid of?"

"Because he's a shifter. He can't be held in a cell. It's death for him either way." Death, or kept in a drugged stupor for the rest of his days. 

"Should have thought of that before he became a villain." Eren sniffed in disdain.

The conversation wasn't going anywhere, but still reluctance kept him speaking. "He doesn't actually have any direct kills to his name, based on Interpol's file. He doesn't even strike that often." 

"That doesn't make him worth _anything_ ," Eren snarled. "He should be crushed. You said yourself that nobody else knows he's a shifter – who knows how many other crimes he's getting away with under other identities?"

Erwin couldn't resist a sigh. "You're right. I'm sorry for taking up your time. We'll proceed with the plan as usual."

Eren watched him suspiciously, then straightened up and smoothed his features, before returning to his normal teenage slouch, hands stuffed in the pockets of his dark green hoodie. "Good," he muttered, and headed inside.

\---

Erwin hadn't _planned_ to be yet another superhero working at a newspaper. In fact, had he known when he started studying journalism that he was going to end up a superhero, he might have seriously considered a change in career, if only to avoid the painful cliché. But by the time his powers showed (later than usual, and no falling-into-radioactive-gunk as an excuse, either) he was already an intern, and after an evening of complaining to Mike and flailing a bit more than he cared to admit, Erwin had decided that he wasn't going to change his life plans entirely just because he could throw cars at people now. 

So here he was, an editor at a newspaper, coming into work and pretending he didn't know that Rico from Graphics was actually Lightstream and that Nanaba who covered sports had energy-manipulation powers. They did him the same courtesy.  
He appreciated that Rico kept her disapproval of his behavior as a superhero out of the workplace. 

Though he had plenty to do, he found himself distracted. He kept replaying the conversation with Eren in his mind, kept remembering the fight with Levi. The _right_ thing to do would be to call up Nile and get Levi's his very own supervillain file updated with his shifter powers. Or perhaps, the _responsible_ thing. The friendly thing. Taking care of the wider superhero community.

Erwin pulled his phone out of his pocket, then slid it back in. Levi wasn't the most notorious of villains, but he was slippery. And quiet. Most superheroes went after the immediate threats of world destruction, not the guys discreetly engaging in villainy on the side, especially when they thought he was a normal. The news that he was a shifter would push him way up the priority list, and while it was accepted that heroes stayed out of each other's way when someone had staked a claim, there was always the chance somebody would forget themselves. Just be in the right place at the right time. 

Perhaps he should cultivate Levi as an arch-nemesis. Most of the big names had one, after all. But the fact was that Erwin didn't really believe in letting people run amuck more than once, and tended to end threats one way or another. Changing his tune now would be hypocritical. 

He wondered how old Levi was. All his attacks thus far showed patience and calculation – probably someone well out of his teenage years, which threw a wrench in Erwin's desire to see him as young and misguided. 

And there he was, speculating about Levi again when he should be editing an article. Erwin scrubbed at his face and rubbed his eyes. He would go to the bathroom, get a coffee, stop thinking about Levi, and get his work done. 

Just getting up and walking from his desk to the bathroom was enough to steady himself a little. The mundane noises of the workplace surrounded him, reminding him that his was a plane separate from the one where he wore a mask and fought crime. 

While washing his hands he dashed water on his face as well. He would probably regret soaking his shirt collar in a few minutes, but for now it felt good. He straightened up and looked in the mirror, water-combed his hair back into place.  
He narrowed his eyes at his reflection. Something seemed… off. Were the bags under his eyes more pronounced than usual? Had he shaved badly that morning?

His reflection frowned back at him, blue eyes stern, same as usual. Erwin blinked, and when his eyelids flickered open his reflection was grinning at him in an expression that had never graced his features – too wide, too gleeful, and certainly not what his face was doing at the moment.

His heart jolted and he couldn't help but take a step back, eyes locked on blue ones that were _not his_ as they faded to red in a black shadow of a face.

" _Found you._ "


	2. Chapter 2

" _Found you_."

Erwin didn't stop to think, rammed his fist into the center of that nightmarish face. He shattered the image, the mirror, crumbled the wall behind it. The mirror fell around him in a thousand glimmering pieces but Levi had melted away, avoided his fist, and vanished in the confusion, though Erwin's eyes darted around in an attempt to follow him.

Erwin was left alone in the bathroom, panting, surrounded by shards of mirror, and Levi was nowhere to be seen. His heart was racing in his ears so loudly he could hardly hear anything else. His eyes darted around the room, trying to glimpse anything out of place, something that might possibly be a shifter in disguise. Had the door to that stall moved? Should he break it? He could hardly blunder around breaking everything in the hopes of hitting Levi.

How had Levi discovered him so quickly? 

"Erwin?" Rico called from the entrance, stopping at the threshold to the men's bathroom. At the sight of the broken wall she forgot herself and took a few steps in, jaw dropping. "Are you okay? What did you _do_?"

"I thought I saw something," Erwin said, mind already racing. If Levi was still here – and he assumed the shifter was – it would be too easy for Rico to give herself away, and then Levi would have the alternate identities of _two_ heroes instead of just one. "I just… suddenly felt like something was watching me. I don't know what happened to the wall. Perhaps there was some sort of fault?"

Rico narrowed her eyes. _Please get it_ , Erwin thought at her, hoping she'd play along. 

"Come off it," she said, "only an idiot wouldn't figure out that you've got superpowers looking at that wall."

It looked like she was cooperating. Erwin sighed and scratched the back of his head. "I guess," he said sheepishly, hoping his acting was up to par. Fuck this was embarrassing, he hadn't had to do an actual coverup in years. "But I really don't want anyone to know…" 

"I didn't see anybody else in the corridor," Rico said. "Are you actually a superhero?" Definitely playing along. "Let's just get out of here and pretend we know nothing about it. I'll alibi you."

Well, it was a solution, if not an elegant one. Though…

"Check that the coast's clear."

Rico stepped out, looked both ways, then nodded. 

The bathroom had one outside wall. Erwin wound up and kicked a hole clear through it, ignoring Rico's yelp, then leaped towards the door. To her credit, Rico didn't hesitate, just tore after him towards the coffee lounge down the hall. 

"What was that?" she hissed. "Are you crazy?"

"With luck they'll assume somebody either came in or went out," Erwin said. "Won't be looking inside the building."

They both screeched to a halt in front of the door and strolled into the lounge, continuing an imaginary conversation about color schemes for internet page layouts. Erwin wanted more color, Rico said Erwin had no sense of aesthetics and people didn't want politics to have bright colors anyway. 

"But constant red and blue is so _boring_ ," Erwin said. The conversation was a perfect fallback, being a topic they argued about often anyway, and left his mind free to think of what to do next. 

Levi might attack again, and if that happened, Erwin had to _not be here_. If he left, Levi would probably follow – he hoped. If Levi took it into his head to impersonate Erwin… he shuddered.

Rico noticed. "What is it?"

"I'm not feeling so good. I think I'm going to go home and lie down a bit. Give my apologies to the boss."

She raised her eyebrows. "That bad, huh." 

"Yes." Erwin hesitated. "I'm going home right now. If you happen to see me at the office again today, it's not me, do you understand?" And if Levi _was_ listening, now Erwin had given him the idea. It was seriously a lose-lose. At least he had an excuse not to spill the beans to Rico, but she'd definitely be after him for details later.

"Don't take that tone." Rico searched his face, then frowned. "I don't want to get mixed-up in your heroing. Keep it out of work."

She turned and left the lounge, walking a bit faster than necessary. 

Good. 

"You listening, Levi? Not here. I'm going outside – then you can attack, we can fight, talk, whatever it is you want."

He paused for a moment, listening to the silence, until he was sure that there would be no response. Or maybe Levi wasn't even there. 

Erwin headed out, almost sprinting. 

The news agency's large building was set on a busy street, hardly the ideal place if he was trying to avoid people. Erwin craned around looking for anything out of place, a person watching him too shrewdly, a – was he imagining it, or was that crow looking at him…?

Shit. 

There was a park a few minutes' walk down the street; he would head there, and hope Levi followed. He would have said something aloud, but there were too many people, people everywhere. His gaze darted between them as he strode by, aiming for the park. A young man hurrying behind him, could that be Levi? Or what if he was a woman (Levi was a male name, wasn't it?), or impersonating one – that lady in a dark red jacket was watching him silently, following him with her eyes. 

Above his head a crow called, was it the same one from earlier? Erwin felt sweat under his shirt and resisted the urge to swipe at the trickle on the back of his neck. 

He needed to call the others, warn them. The Scouts had a panic button, but if he pressed it everyone would come running – and Levi would have his entire team, and his cover would be doubly blown. Still about ten meters to the park, he could make a quick phone call. 

Erwin slid his phone out of his back pocket, pace not abating, and had the presence of mind to hide the screen with his other hand on the chance that Levi was somehow watching and would see the name listed. Fancy superheroes had dedicated secure connections; the Scouts used cellphones.

_Please pick up please pick up-_

"Erwin. What is it?" Mike was never one to waste words.

"Levi found me," Erwin bit out. "He got me at work. My cover's busted. Tell everyone to stay away, you hear? I don't want him finding you. Don't come to my house, not even in costume. Don't look for me. Try not to call, so he doesn't see the ID." 

"Or we could help you," Mike said. A solution, but that meant Erwin disclosing his identity to everyone else. It wasn't that he didn't trust them, but – the more people knew, the greater the danger. He gave a different reason, just as valid. 

"And risk discovery? Imagine what would happen if he got to Er-" Erwin choked himself off at the last minute. "-Titan. It would be a disaster." Using the codenames didn't matter, Erwin told himself, all of them were registered as a team anyway. 

"You have a point." There was a pause on the line. "I'll tell the others. Stay safe."

Erwin returned the phone to his pocket and decided he wasn't waiting any longer. He jumped the fence into the park, and found himself among trees. He took a few more steps until he had found a reasonable space where the noise from the street was distant and came to a stop.

"Levi? Levi, show yourself!"

Silence. Erwin scanned the area, looking for anomalies. Twisted olive trees surrounded him, their leaves pale green and rustling in the light wind. Sunlight dappled the ground beneath them, and an occasional bird –

Erwin's heart jerked in his chest when he saw the crow hopping along the ground. He planted his legs a bit wider, in case he'd need to move quickly. "Levi?"

The crow flew away without answering. Had Levi become a tree? A bush? Was he even here? Erwin was tempted to leave it, to hope that Levi had had his fun and left, but Levi might be waiting for him to make just such a gamble. 

"Fine," he said. "I'll wait."

Erwin crossed his arms and stood quietly. Ten minutes passed, then fifteen, and hell, Levi was probably watching him from far off and having a good laugh. Forget it. Erwin might as well head home, if Levi wasn't going to show. He stomped off towards the exit (forgoing jumping the fence this time), when suddenly something snagged his ankle and he went face first into the dirt. Erwin rolled to his feet, cursing, but no one was there, and there were no branches on the ground he could possibly have tripped over. 

"How _old_ are you?" he snarled at the silent trees. With as much dignity as he could muster, Erwin brushed the dirt and twigs off his shirt and pants and kept walking, this time watching the ground for signs of movement. But nothing happened, until he was practically at the street again and a bird pooped on his shoulder. For fuck's _sake._

"If that was you…" But the threat was kind of pointless. He trudged back to his car, glaring at anybody who met his eyes, and yanked the car door open roughly before he caught a glimpse of some writing in the dust on the back door.

_That wasn't me. Gross. And your car is filthy._

"Good to know!" Erwin said, louder than he should, causing people to glance at him strangely. He got in the car and slammed the door behind him, sat down and put his hands on the wheel, when sudden tiredness overtook him. He wanted to lean forward and put his head down, close his eyes, but couldn’t give Levi the satisfaction. 

What did Levi _want_? Aside from money (which he wasn't going to get harassing Erwin), aside from the supposed attraction of villainy for its own sake – what did he gain from this? Erwin didn't know, because they knew nothing about who Levi actually was. Had Levi wanted to kill Erwin, presumably he had ample opportunity to try, so what was he waiting for?

"If you'd just tell me what you're after," Erwin said, "maybe we could figure something out."

He had little hope that Levi would answer, so Erwin wasn't disappointed when he didn't.

\---

The rest of the drive passed without incident, though Erwin's nerves were frayed by the end of it. He was still berating himself for not checking for a car bomb before starting the engine, though luckily that didn't seem to be Levi's style. Maybe he should skip going home and check into a hotel? That way if Levi trashed the place at least it wouldn't be Erwin's house. On the other hand, who knew how long it would take Levi to make his move, and the expenses from a wrecked hotel room were sure to be high. 

The outside of Erwin's small house in the suburbs was deceptively quiet. Nothing stirred at the windows of the one-story building, not a blade of grass looked out of place from Erwin's vantage point in the car. Nothing for it. He parked and headed up the drive. 

So far so good.

He inserted the key into the lock and it turned with a click, but when Erwin pushed the door he encountered resistance. He shoved against the door, propping his shoulder against it while keeping his strength in check so as not to break anything. The door moved a little, but didn't open.

"This isn't funny, Levi!" Erwin shouted. His only answer was a loud crash from somewhere inside. Shit, shit-

Erwin took a step back and threw his shoulder against the door again, only this time the asshole must have let go because Erwin encountered absolutely no resistance and went flying. He got himself under control, but not before he had managed to leave a few dents in the floorboards. 

The living room, when he saw it, was a disaster. Levi must have gotten here only a scant minute or so before him, but he'd evidently made good – if uncreative – use of the time. He'd basically upended everything. The sofas, including Erwin's reading chair were all wrong-side-up, and while the sofas were cheap and kind of ugly (though comfortable), Erwin _loved_ that reading chair. The bookcase he'd only bought a year ago had been toppled over, tossing books every which way. The broken lampshade and lightbulb left shards of glass sparkling all over his carpet. True, he'd hated that lamp and never used it, but now he'd have to clean it up.

The vase on the coffee table was broken, its flowers strewn around and water pooled on the table, streaming down and dripping onto the carpet. Most of the pictures had been torn off the walls, and the glass from their frames joined the lampshade all over the carpet and floor. 

"You…" he began, but a knife flying at his head from the kitchen made him leap out of the way. He nearly wasn't quick enough - the knife missed him by scant millimeters and buried itself in the wall behind him. Evidently Levi was no slouch with knife throwing, either. 

Erwin stormed over to the kitchen, eyes peeled for anything moving, keeping his fists clenched and arms loose to attack. There was no sign of movement, no disturbance along the way, and when he looked into his kitchen everything seemed in place, except for the knife missing from the magnet nailed to the wall above the counter. That was now decorating his living room. Even the few dirty dishes from this morning didn't seem to have moved, sitting innocently in the sink where he had left them.

A split second of intuition and the hint of breath on his neck was all the warning he had before he whirled and lashed out with his left fist. Levi dodged away, still too fast for him, leaving Erwin to punch a hole through the kitchen's doorpost and into the concrete wall. 

Now, at least, Levi was visible – a black shadow with red eyes, like he had appeared before. Erwin attacked again, upping the speed, but it wasn't a match for Levi's slippery avoidance. He didn't even engage, just let Erwin bang his own house to rubble with every missed blow. Erwin could feel rage starting to cloud his thoughts and make his movements sloppy with the desire to _just land a hit on that grinning face_ , so he forced himself to leap back and still. Levi stayed across from him, on the other side of the living room, and at least he wasn't wearing that infuriating grin any longer. 

"What do you want?" Erwin asked, dropping his arms deliberately and straightening his back. "Talk to me. You're a criminal, but if you surrender, I could tell them-"

Levi interrupted him with a rough sound that could have been a bark of laughter. Erwin had the feeling diplomacy was going to fail. "Maybe I just want to hurt you," Levi said. His voice was scratchy and choppy, setting Erwin's thoughts spinning – was it an act? Scarring on his vocal chords? Disuse?

"Why? What have I done to you?"

"You found me." 

"I don't know who you are. I haven't told anyone about your powers." A small lie – if Levi succeeded in killing Erwin, his teammates would surely have no compunctions about making sure everybody knew, so Levi could be taken down. 

"Then you're an idiot."

Erwin kept on waiting for him to lose focus, to start pacing, to start grandstanding, but Levi did none of that. He kept his red eyes on Erwin and his body ready to attack if Erwin moved. 

"Maybe. I wanted to have the chance to talk to you." Was it better or worse to convince Levi that this was part of a plan? "I want to know what you're after. Why do you want to hurt me? Why do you hate me?"

"Why aren't you scared?" Levi retorted.

"Worst case, you'll kill me," Erwin said and immediately regretted the misstep, because Levi straightened up and the slight softness that had developed around him vanished as he snapped back to attention.

"You'll _wish_ you were dead," Levi hissed, and vanished down the corridor to Erwin's room. Leaving Erwin alone in his trashed living room, surrounded by pieces of broken glass and furniture, and with a growing headache. He hadn't expected Levi to take it as a challenge, and he had the strong feeling he'd be regretting it. 

\---

Erwin spent the next few hours trying to restore his living room to some semblance of order. He straightened the sofas and swept up the glass, then vacuumed the carpet. The bookshelf got straightened, but at that point he was too tired to make the effort to rearrange his books by size and topic the way they had been before, so he just haphazardly stuck them on the shelves wherever he found space. A strange lethargy dragged at him, something deeper than physical exhaustion. After all, he hadn't done anything extreme today. There was no reason for him to be tired. But just looking around his living room was enough to drag his spirits down. 

When he took out the trash, he considered just getting in his car and getting out of there. Maybe Levi was watching and maybe he wasn't, but at this point making a run for it didn't seem like such a terrible idea. That was when Erwin noticed that his tires had been slashed. 

"Fuck you," he muttered, and reentered the house. 

Might as well have dinner. He was lucky his house was reasonably stocked. Erwin put together an omelette with vegetables. Where normally the routine of chopping onions and mushrooms would have relaxed him, it did him no good this time. 

In a burst of crazy inspiration, Erwin made one big enough for two, cut it in half, and set another place at the table. 

"Levi!" he called. "Dinner time!"

He wasn't surprised in the least when Levi declined to show up. Still. Erwin left the cooling omelette on the dining room table when he went to wash dishes. 

It wasn't late, yet, but Erwin just wanted to go to bed at this point. He stood at the edge of the hallway, feeling reluctant. Down the hallway was the direction Levi had vanished in. 

There was no guarantee Levi was hiding out there, Erwin told himself. None at all. He wasn't going to stay out of his own room because of the fear that Levi had become a potted plant. He didn't have potted plants in his room anyway. 

Erwin squared his shoulders, turned on the light – and found out Levi had taken out the hall lightbulbs. 

"Immature," he grumbled, and walked down in the dark. 

Luckily, the bathroom seemed quiet enough. Erwin stood for a moment, squinting suspiciously at the shadowed corners before deciding there wasn't much to do about it and he badly needed a shower. He stripped, tossing dusty clothes onto the closet toilet seat, and let out a sigh of relief when he stepped into the hot water. 

The problem was, he realized, nervousness cutting through his desire to relax, the sound of the water masked anybody else that might be moving in the background, and the water running down his face decreased visibility. Well, no use in imagining trouble.

And indeed, it seemed that no trouble would find him, as he just stood there with hot water running over him, washing away soap and exhaustion, until he felt his wariness spiral slowly down the drain as well. He stood there longer than he should, though normally the waste of water would have bothered him. A reprieve, just for a few minutes…

Erwin had only the barest warning before something coiled around his ankles and _jerked_ , stealing his balance on the smooth tiles and sending him headfirst into the wall, the faucet catching him in the nose and forehead in a bright explosion of pain. Luckily it was the faucet that broke and not his head. 

Anybody else might have died.

"Asshole!" Erwin gasped, trying to get his feet under him, braced on his left arm while he used his right hand to prod at his throbbing nose. It came away pink, the still-running water washing away the blood quickly. Not broken, though. Just very painful. 

When he got his feet under him, he saw that his knees had gone through the tiles when he'd fallen. And how was he supposed to turn off the water now? Erwin stuck his fingers in the hole and fiddled with the broken mechanism until he managed to coax the water off. He stood there, naked and dripping, not exactly clean but he didn't care anymore. His shoulders ached with tension, the need to punch something – preferably Levi. He should run for his secret weapon stash and find something to zap Levi with once and for all, because it didn't look like there was anybody to talk to. The vain hope he'd had of a shifter joining them seemed silly, now. Though, he couldn't help but remember Levi's almost childish question – _why aren't you scared?_ Erwin pushed the thought away. 

"Asshole," he said again. "You know how much fixing up my house after this is going to cost me?"

"Assuming you're alive to fix it," Levi said.

Erwin threw open the shower curtain, but there was nobody there. He got out and dried himself roughly, and didn't even bother wrapping the towel around him when he went to his room to get underwear and a change of clothes. 

Clothes… shit. He'd left his clothes in the bathroom, and in his pants pocket was –

Erwin ran, but when he reached his pants he found that Levi had gotten to it before him. His phone was crushed. He thought again of where he kept his weapons stash, but almost anything there could be used against him as well. Assuming right now Levi didn't know how to find the secret cache in his bedroom, did he want to risk being watched while he opened it? Was it worth trying to get his hands on a taser?

Erwin decided to leave that option open. He could risk it later, if things got too bad. As of now, Levi seemed more interested in terrorizing him than in actually killing him. On a whim, Erwin checked the hall phone, which was silent when he pressed it to his ear. Levi had cut the line. 

He just had to get his hands on Levi, and it would be over. Erwin wouldn't hesitate to crush him this time. Even if Levi could grow armor, he wasn't a match for Erwin in brute force. 

But the shapeshifter didn't show himself again, so Erwin decided to go to sleep. His bedroom looked mostly undisturbed, which was suspicious in and of itself. Erwin scrutinized the heavy chest of drawers (carved wood, inherited from his grandparents. If Levi broke it…) with the small knickknacks and cologne sitting on top. Nothing had been tampered with here; he could tell by the marks in the dust. He opened his closet and tugged at the hangers, riffled through the underwear drawers, rubbing his fingertips over everything to see if they encountered an odd texture. He went and got a broom and started banging on the ceiling (if Levi could flatten himself into a mirror, he could flatten himself to the ceiling…), but nothing so much as twitched. 

His bookshelves seemed undisturbed. Erwin looked at the small rug beside his bed contemplatively, then poked it a few times with his foot. It didn't move, but he decided to roll it up and toss it outside the door just in case. He waited a few moments, breath stopped, but there was no sound. 

What else? Erwin got to his knees and checked under the bed, poking around with the broom to make sure. He lifted the pillow, but it was the same lumpy thing he always told himself he had to replace and never got around to it. 

Shame he hadn't brought a knife from the kitchen to keep on hand. Though at this point he didn't want to risk leaving the room, because then he'd have to check everything again. Erwin flopped onto his bed with a sigh, the give of the mattress a relief from strain. He crawled up the bed and reached over the headboard to flick the lights off, then slid in between the slightly warm sheets. 

"Levi," he said, forcing himself to calm because there was no _point_ in being angry, no point in letting it interfere with his goals. Levi was a royal asshole, that was certain, and a dangerous one. But if Erwin could just get leverage… "I know you think you're doing this because you have to. I want to offer you another option. You're not my enemy. We're not like those bigwigs who waste time and energy being rivals and cackling. You're angry at me because I got close to you, and you're lashing out." The room felt very, very still. Erwin stared up at the dark ceiling, eyes wide and straining against the shadows. "I know what the world is like for shapeshifters. I'm willing to cut a deal. Go to jail, serve your time, and I won't tell them you're a shifter. If you don't run, I'll have no reason to tell anybody, will I? I'll keep your secret. You have mine, after all. Nobody else knows my identity, except for one of my teammates. It's a fair trade, don't you think?"

Erwin didn't receive an answer. He waited in dark silence, but the clock ticked away and he was getting bored, getting sleepy…

\---

He dreamed that he was drowning. He had gone swimming in the ocean, which stretched beautiful and blue to all sides, fish always off in the distance. Sunlight shone down through the water, the sunlight burning where Erwin could see it, floating on his back underwater. But soon enough he realized that he couldn't breathe, and tried to swim back to the air.

The water turned viscous around him, sucking at his arms and holding them back. Erwin struggled, he had superstrength, how was _water_ stronger than him? He kicked, tried to make his way to the surface, but it grew ever farther. The bright blue sea was darkening around him. Erwin couldn't think beyond the pressure in his chest, the need to _draw air—_

And he jerked awake, tangled in sheets that had wrapped to tie his arms down, in a bed that he was sinking into, and something was covering his mouth and nose. _The bed the bed Levi had turned into the damn_ BED. Erwin's lungs were screaming for air, sheer panic keeping him from mustering his strength to break Levi's hold. 

Erwin kicked down and felt the bed shudder; evidently Levi could feel pain in this form. He kicked again, brought his arms together and tried to tear at the sheets. His vision was blackening, but he managed to draw his body together and tear his arms free, and then was digging fingers into the material – oddly solid, more like flesh than sheets – and _pulled_. 

It came away in a burst of oxygen and Erwin surged up, getting enough leverage to land a few more solid kicks in the "mattress" beneath him, then his elbows, and Levi was melting away from him, taking a humanoid form again. Erwin managed to land a kick to his chest before Levi could materialize blades, sending him crashing into the wall. Levi nearly collapsed but became something that looked like an armadillo with spikes in every direction, forcing Erwin to dodge away lest he get cut to ribbons. 

"I don't get you!" Erwin rasped. "What's your problem? You could have just cut my throat while I was asleep. What are you playing at?" 

Levi rolled to his feet and absorbed the spikes back into his black shadow of a body, then gave a rippling shrug that annoyed Erwin possibly more than anything else Levi had done until now. 

"Why?" Erwin asked, again. All Levi needed to do was give a stock answer and Erwin would leave him alone ("do I need a reason", "it's part of my complicated bullshit philosophy about the nature of Man", etc.), but Levi _wasn't_. Which meant Levi hadn't been around enough to absorb standard supervillain lingo, or hadn't reached the point where he'd said it so often he believed in it. 

"I want you to know what I really am," Levi said. His voice was smoother this time, the intonation surprisingly normal, strengthening Erwin's hypothesis that Levi didn't hang out with other supervillains much.

"A bully?" Erwin snorted. "Or do you mean a dick?"

"No!" Levi burst out. "You-" He cut himself off with clenched teeth and just stood there, entire body tense and fists tight. Internal struggle or no, Erwin wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to get the jump on him. Just as he was shifting his feet, however, Levi suddenly threw himself out the window, the burst of shattering glass unnaturally loud in the silence. Erwin dived for him but missed, and by the time he slammed his hands on the window frame and leaned out, Levi was gone. 

His back yard was dark and the same as ever, except for a misshapen, jagged pile of something under his window. At least now he knew where his real bed had gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Making Erwin miserable is just too much fun. It's a different perspective, writing him when he's not really in control of things. I like it :3


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Warnings for this chapter** : mentions of past child abuse.

Levi had left the house, this time for sure. How long the reprieve would last Erwin didn't know, but now—

Erwin grabbed the air-conditioner remote, which Widget had done a wonderful job on. It looked completely normal, but when Erwin entered the code there was a soft _beep_ and a section of the floor slid upwards, revealing a modest arsenal and one of Erwin's costumes. Erwin pulled out a small taser, a gun, and a grenade. Then he stripped quickly and changed into his costume, hiding it under his clothing. This way, if he had to go out he'd be free to use his powers.

For that matter, he could signal the others and get them over here and have the whole thing done with. He allowed himself a tight smile and slid his weapons cache shut, relieved that Levi hadn't gotten to it. Installing it secretly had cost him a _hell_ of a lot. He checked his utility belt out of habit; as usual, it was fully loaded with darts, spools of super-strong wire and other odds and ends, to which he added the gun, taser, and beeper. 

A swift glance at the clock showed him it was about 3 am, but his team wouldn't mind too much being woken up. Shame there were no buses, but all Erwin had to do was get out to a payphone and call a cab, or just run to a main street and flag one down. Either way, now with his costume and weapons, Levi was—

Erwin stopped short in the living room, the table catching his attention despite the gloom. The omelette was gone.

Curiosity gnawed at him, and while he knew he shouldn't delay, he couldn't resist a quick nip into the kitchen. Not only had the omelette been eaten, the plate was washed and sitting quietly in the rack.

Along with the rest of the dishes from Erwin's dinner that he hadn't bothered dealing with.

Erwin took a deep breath, struggling with himself. He should get going, he _knew_ that, but…

What was up with Levi? He was doing his best (and sort of succeeding) to terrorize the hell out of Erwin, so why had he accepted the omelette and washed Erwin's dishes? It must have been before the strangulation attempt, but if so, why had Levi tried to kill him? 

_Had_ Levi tried to kill him? Erwin had been asleep (…on top of Levi. Or inside Levi, since he had apparently been the sheets as well. Erwin suppressed a shudder. Moving along), completely vulnerable to any manner of swift lethal attacks. 

What had Levi said? He wanted Erwin afraid. Wanted Erwin to realize "what he was". Evidently he was doing his very best to be intimidating. Or provoking. Erwin had to admit, on anybody else the tactics would have probably worked pretty well. By all rights he should be furious by now, should be cursing Levi out, or should be ready to just put a bullet in him when the opportunity allowed.

So why was he still standing in his kitchen, looking at the neatly racked clean dishes?

_Because you're an idiot, Erwin Smith._

Erwim thought of the gun hiding under his clothes, and wondered if Levi wasn't waiting for him to use lethal force, to give Levi an excuse. What if he didn't? What if he kept on refusing to rise to the bait, refusing to become angry or to fight back? Was it a gamble worth taking?

The window of opportunity was rapidly closing. Now was his chance to finish it, put another checkmark on his list of villains stopped. Eren was right – Levi wasn't some innocent, tortured soul; he was stealing and selling _weapons._

And yet Erwin was just _itching_ to get him into a Scouts uniform and call Levi his own.

He would keep the weapons on him, under his clothes, he told himself. If it became necessary, he could protect himself. And he had to be prepared; despite the fact that he was reasonably sure that as of now Levi wasn't actually trying to kill him, there was no knowing how he'd react to being pushed. 

Decision made (foolish, foolish decision that Mike would surely berate him for endlessly), Erwin turned on the light, sat down on his righted reading chair, and settled in to wait. 

It must have been barely three minutes before Levi came tearing back into the room, stopping short in shock when he saw Erwin waiting for him. He immediately responded by growing blades and armor all over, body tensing for an attack.

Erwin didn't move, kept his hands visible on the arm rests and muscles lax. "Hey."

"What are you doing?" Levi demanded. He kept to his wary crouch, claws at the ready.

"Waiting up for you. Besides, I don't have a bed anymore."

Levi twitched. "You… you don't expect me to turn into your bed again, do you?" He sounded so horrified Erwin had to fight down a smile. It was _nice_ to have the upper hand.

He hummed, as though considering it. "I suppose it would be a bit awkward, now that I know it's you." He sighed. "If I sleep on the sofa, though, my back will be a mess tomorrow."

Levi was staring at him with wide red eyes, but Erwin distinctly heard a mutter that sounded like "freakishly tall" escape him. Interesting. Levi shook his head, as if to clear it, and set his scowl back in place.

"What's _wrong_ with you?" 

"Me? I'm not the one invading other people's homes in the middle of the night. I just want to get some sleep, at this point. May I, or should I be prepared for another murder attempt?"

"You," Levi sputtered, and leapt. It was lucky that Erwin was waiting for it, because he managed to dodge both swipes, though the chair didn't fare so well. Crap. He ducked under Levi's arm and would have tried to throw him, but Levi grew more sharp edges that sliced his fingers. In the end Erwin picked up the coffee table and used it as a shield, which worked for a few seconds until Levi grew some bladed tentacles and reached around. 

Erwin threw the table at him (leaving bloody fingerprints) and staggered back to lean against the wall. "Aren't you tired?"

"Shut up."

"Because I don't think you thought this through. _I_ got some sleep, but you have to keep watch, don't you? You can't go to sleep, or I might get away, and then what was the point of all this?"

"Shut up!"

"Don't you mean 'silence, fool'?"

"What?"

"'Silence, fool'" Erwin repeated patiently. "If you're going to be a supervillain, shouldn't you talk like one?" Levi looked absolutely furious, so Erwin held up his hands defensively. "I'm just trying to help."

"I'm not a supervillain, and I don't need to talk like an idiot to take you down," Levi snarled. He was starting to lose his cool, which meant he was becoming more dangerous. 

"You actually are," Erwin replied. "You've got a good start on coming up with needlessly convoluted plans to kill heroes, anyway."

For just one split second Levi's expression changed, crumpled into pain. So quickly Erwin had to convince himself it was real and not just what he wanted to see. 

"You don't _have_ to be that," he said, gentling his tone. Eren was right; Levi was nothing like him. Eren had searched them out, arrived full of righteous rage and ready to fight for the Right Side. They had had to convince him that the world wasn't quite so black and white, though to this day, Eren's very… drastic view of justice mostly suited the way the Scouts operated. 

"There isn't anything else for me," Levi said bitterly. There was a small bit of truth in his words; shapeshifting was a socially unfortunate power to have. They were not often trusted – much like telepaths. Luckily, both were rare. 

Should he push? For better or for worse, it would lead to a reaction. "You could be a hero."

"Why should I?" Levi's response was lightning-quick, his voice gone cold. "Where were they when _I_ needed one?"

Jackpot. Oh, this was beautiful. It was like his birthday had come early. Erwin suppressed any hint of the grin that wanted to spread over his face and swept in for the winning blow. "I think you still need one."

In the silence he could see the break, clear as day. Some tiny, wounded part of Levi that had been hurt and trampled and buried away, when all it needed was some warmth to coax it out. 

"Why don't we call it a truce until morning?" Erwin offered. "I won't go anywhere. I just want to get some sleep." Time for a distraction, to let the ideas percolate in Levi's brain. 

"It's a trap," Levi said, defensive once more.

"I don't see what kind. I'll be sleeping, so you can kill me if you want. Even if I had called the police, for one, you could easily vanish, and for the other, if you told them my other identity I'd be in trouble, too. Where's the trap?"

Levi had a deep frown on his face, but he wasn't attacking, and to Erwin's eye he seemed a bit less on edge, less ready to attack. Deliberately, Erwin dropped out of his own protective stance and took a step forward. Levi immediately tightened up.

"I'm going to the couch," Erwin said. "To sleep."

Levi watched him like a hawk (funny, because he could actually turn into a hawk and then watch him… No, Erwin. Bad pun), turning slowly in place as Erwin traversed the living room all the way to the largest of the sofas. 

"You said it would hurt your back." Levi sounded suspicious. 

"I don't have much choice." Erwin sat down and flopped onto his side, trying to find the least uncomfortable position. "Because _somebody_ destroyed my bed." Legs to his chest, and his feet were hanging off the front. He tried straightening, hooking his knees over the armrest, but that would probably make his legs fall asleep. In the end he bent his knees and leaned them against the back of the sofa. Uncomfortable, but not too bad.

"Whiner," Levi muttered. 

"Get the light, will you?"

One of Levi's arms became a tentacle which shot out and shattered the overhead light, plunging the room into darkness in a shower of broken glass. And Erwin had only just cleaned up. 

"Uncalled for," Erwin sighed. Though not unexpected. In the darkness, Levi didn't look much different, still a black shadow, though now the red of his eyes was invisible. He hadn't moved. 

"Can you make your eyes glow in the dark?"

"Why?" Levi's voice was more menacing in the gloom. 

"Curiosity."

Levi was silent so long Erwin thought he was being ignored, but then he noticed that two faintly luminous red eyes were becoming visible, floating in the darkness above the ground. The effect was extremely unsettling.

"Nice," Erwin said, and closed his eyes. No need to fear anything else when Levi was standing there in front of him. Falling asleep was probably a bad idea, but… he allowed himself to drift off, wondering if he would ever wake up. 

\---

He felt a bit smug when he opened his eyes next morning, little worse for the wear. Or rather, nothing _additional_ untoward had happened during the night, but his hands, now that he got a good look at him, were a mess. 

First order of the day, then: bandages. 

None of the cuts were deep, just painful and itchy, so he padded some gauze against the worst and wrapped them up in elastic bandage from the bathroom, taping his fingers up in band-aids. 

No sign of Levi, but Erwin knew better than to assume that he'd gone. 

He made waffles for breakfast, noting that he was starting to run low on supplies, though there was enough for another day or two. His house wasn't made to withstand siege. 

"Can I at least call in sick to work?" Erwin asked aloud, as he set Levi's waffle in the same place the omelette had been yesterday. Levi didn't answer, which Erwin took as a no. He hoped Rico would make excuses for him. Deliberately, he left his dirty dishes in the sink, same as before. Would he catch Levi washing them, this time?

What was he supposed to do now, anyway? His laptop was still intact in his briefcase where he had dropped it in the hallway yesterday, and Erwin wasn't inclined to try and take it out. His appliances hadn't fared well with Levi thus far, and he'd hate to lose his laptop, too. 

The television was okay, though, since Levi hadn't torn up any of the other rooms the way he had the living room. Erwin headed to the room that doubled as a television- and guest room and flopped down on the sofa bed. He turned it on and started flipping through channels. An action movie was really not what he needed to watch right now; watching fake explosions just reminded him of the sorry state of his own home (and he had the sneaking suspicion that this room would suffer before the day was out). Horror was worse; he now had a visceral sympathy for the people tiptoeing around in the dark while things went bump in the night. He switched to the news briefly, where Eren had just rescued people from a car pileup in titan form, and was now giving a short costumed interview to the camera. The boy was practically glowing with pride, and Erwin made sure to change the channel before the fond smile that threatened to stretch over his face could materialize. 

"Funny," Levi said, his voice close enough to Erwin's ear that he couldn't resist a shudder. "His costume looks awfully similar to yours."

 _No_. Erwin stiffened, automatically thinking of the gun under his shirt, the taser within reach, wondering if he was fast enough to nab Levi with it. If Levi went after Eren, this whole thing was a bust. Any one of the provocations that Erwin had managed to brush off would send Eren through the _roof_. 

"Going after kids, now?" Erwin asked mildly. "I'm not entertaining enough?" Cold sweat beaded his upper lip. 

"Nah," Levi said, after waiting too long. He was faking nonchalance as strongly as Erwin was. "You're fun."

Levi had shown caring, so now he had to make up for it with violence. Erwin had a split second to prepare himself before something wrapped around his neck, aggravating the already-painful bruises from last night. He was quick enough to grab the tentacle and tear at it, but had to let go when Levi made it sprout blades. This thing where he could turn any part of his body into a blade was getting really old. 

The fight was short and violent, though Erwin could tell that Levi's heart wasn't in it. They traded a few blows, Erwin accumulated a few more cuts and landed some punches, but Levi backed off pretty quickly and pretended he didn't care anymore. As he was stalking out of the (now wrecked, dammit) guest room Erwin called after him, "You're welcome."

Levi whipped around. "What?"

"For the waffle. Did you like it?"

"Fuck you."

"Thanks for not destroying my television," Erwin added, and was not surprised in the least when Levi gave him the finger. But when Levi didn't reach back to break it just for kicks, Erwin knew they were getting somewhere. 

He spent the rest of the morning reading. It was amazing how much he could get done when there was actually nothing else to do. He actually finished the book that he'd been working through for the past three weeks. Levi made himself scarce, but he couldn't relax, because the second he did Levi would probably try to stab his eyes out or something. 

He was seriously not set up for a long campaign. Still, it was either that or just end the fight now, and wouldn't that be a shame, especially now that Levi showed signs of having an eminently exploitable trauma in his past?

For lunch he made some rice and stir-fried whatever vegetables he had lying around that were starting to look bedraggled. His eye caught on the stash of instant noodles in his cabinet, and there was a regret: he should have started serving those first. Maybe Levi would have gotten frustrated enough to leave. 

"Lunch!" he called, setting Levi's place out, as usual. He was actually surprised when Levi materialized from the direction of the kitchen, a scowl on his face.

"You're a fucking slob. Do you _ever_ wash dishes?"

Erwin smiled. "You're doing such a good job, though."

"You-!" Levi was about ready to blow up, but then reconsidered. "No way, you couldn't have expected me the first day, and you _still_ had a sink full of dirty dishes. You're just lazy."

Clever. Erwin smiled, allowing fondness to show through. "Are you sitting down?" He motioned at Levi's plate, steaming temptingly. "Food tastes better when it's hot."

Levi shifted from foot to foot, narrowing his red eyes. Could Levi even eat, transformed as he was? It would be interesting to find out. 

Erwin sat down at his own place and took a bite. When his eyes flicked back to Levi, he saw that the shifter had taken half a step towards him, clearly wavering, and behind him was a flicker and a glint of-

"Mike _no_!" Erwin shouted, leaping to his feet just as a silenced gun went off with a too-soft _pop_. Levi jumped, which was probably all that saved his life. The bullet went through his side, but Erwin wasn't watching him, too busy vaulting the table to tackle Mike before he could take a killing shot. 

Levi staggered and his body flickered in a sick ripple before the black faded to pale skin and dark hair. He was a young man now, much shorter than his black form, stark naked and clutching his bleeding abdomen. Grey eyes met Erwin's, wide with shock. 

"Liar," he said, the word shaky on his lips. Erwin wanted to reply, _needed_ to, but he couldn't even maintain eye contact because Mike had pulled out another gun and was still trying to shoot Levi. 

"Wait-" he had time to shout before Levi struggled out the window and vanished, leaving nothing behind but a few spots of blood. Erwin was left to turn his attention to Mike, who seemed to have given up on chasing Levi for the moment.

"Why did you do that?" he snarled. "I almost had him-"

"The only thing you have is Stockholm Syndrome," Mike growled back. "Have you looked at yourself?"

"That's got nothing to do with it," Erwin protested while Mike steered him towards the hall mirror (miraculously unbroken still). He was letting Mike push him, of course. If he dug his heels in Mike wouldn't be able to budge him.

"Look."

Erwin did, and had to admit that Mike had a bit of a point. Half his face was bruised beneath light stubble, and his neck was a mess of purple and yellow punctuated by a few thin cuts that had stopped bleeding. Unraveling bandages covered his hands, while his torn shirt was spotted with blood. He looked approximately as well put-together as his house, but he wasn't going to admit it. "What are you trying to say?" he asked coldly. 

Mike rolled his eyes and walked off, making a beeline for Levi's discarded plate. Erwin headed back to the table and sat down, almost falling into his chair with the sudden release of tension. Levi was _gone_ and he was alive, he wouldn't have to deal with things turning into blades anymore and voices coming out of nowhere, wouldn't have to poke every chair before he sat on it, could get a new bed and actually _sleep_ on it. He was so tired he could die. 

His head fell to the table with a _thunk_ that left a dent in the wood. "Call everybody," Erwin said. "Tell them to get to HQ. We need to plan our next step. I want you to follow Levi, find out where he lives and come tell us." Erwin was so tired he was slurring. "And until then, can I crash at your place?"

Mike ended up having to half-carry him to the car, grumbling all the way. Erwin fell asleep as soon as he was seated, and woke up a few hours later in Mike's bed with no memory of lying down. He stretched, working out kinks in his back and luxuriating in a bed that wasn't trying to strangle him. He knew he should be getting up, but lolled in bed for a bit longer, just enjoying the feeling of safety. His many cuts and bruises no longer seemed so bad. Levi hadn't hurt him much, and now Erwin had all the cards and Levi was on the run. Erwin smiled up at the ceiling, brain sparking to awareness, alive with battle plans. He was ready to tackle the world (or Levi) once more.

\---

It was late evening, prompting much glee from Eren at avoiding his bedtime and admonishments from Wildfire not to get used to it. Erwin's costume covered up some of the worst of his bruises, but he received worried glances from his teammates nonetheless. 

Mike currently had the floor, a blown-up map projected on the wall behind him.

"I managed to trace him no problem," he said. "He didn't even go to a hospital. Either he's not as hurt as we thought, or the bugger sewed himself back up."

"Or he's got a healing factor," Eren suggested.

"Maybe," Mike conceded, "but Widget says it's unlikely, because he's nearly at the end of the shapeshifting spectrum. Powers usually double up more towards the middle."

" _I_ have a healing factor," Eren mumbled. But then, Eren wasn't an example, as his ability to shift into a giant had been artificially induced. Whether or not he'd had the healing factor beforehand was unclear. They couldn't even cross-reference with the others of Eren's batch, because it was equally plausible that they had chosen a group of kids with healing abilities for the experiment in the first place. 

"He lives here, alone." Mike showed them a small free-standing house set back from the street, surrounded by high hedges and hidden behind trees. "Not that far from us, only two cities over. Doesn't own a car, doesn't mow his lawn, though he's got a little garden in the back. Didn't leave his house the whole time I was watching, and nobody came to visit."

Carnage stood up next. "The property's owned by Levi Smith."

Erwin frowned and only just kept himself from denying any relation. Mike slanted a sly glance at him, and he glowered back. 

"Doesn't seem to have a job aside from selling weapons, though you'd think he could afford a better place. There isn't much listed on him at all, actually. No driver's license, no passport. I found documentation of high school attendance and a birth certificate, but they're fake. He didn't appear in the yearbook he was supposed to be in, for example. But the real breakthrough came when Wildfire and I did some searching based on that sketch she did."

Wildfire grinned proudly. The course in sketch-artistry she'd taken certainly paid off.

"We started digging and got a match on facial recognition." Carnage showed them two images, Wildfire's sketch based on Erwin's and Mike's descriptions alongside a low-quality picture of a child that bore remarkable similarity, despite long scraggly hair and sunken cheeks. "These are from when we downloaded the files from that Underground base we broke into a few years back. Apparently they picked him up at the age of ten from his relatives who were keeping him locked in the basement and were only too happy to hand him over. His powers were completely out of control."

Wildfire spoke up. "It said he was a shapeshifter _from birth_ ," she said, sympathy clear in her voice. "He tore his way out of his mother's womb."

A flinch ran around the table. Poor mother, poor child, Erwin thought. Most powers showed around puberty, which was bad enough. No wonder Levi was such a mess. 

"Shifter from _birth_ ," Widget murmured, having gotten over the shock quickly, though her voice was still subdued. "Amazing, absolutely amazing. I just _have_ to find out what his limits are."

"That's still not an excuse," Eren's voice cut through the silence. "I was experimented on, too, and I never became a supervillain! Stop being so damn _pitying_."

"It's not a competition," Erwin snapped, making Eren jerk backwards, startled. It wasn't often they raised their voices at him. "It's not a question of what he's done. It's a question of what there is left to save. Or have you forgotten why we became heroes in the first place?"

Eren flushed dark red under his mask but backed down, and nobody else seemed inclined to comment. 

Carnage cleared his throat. "Yeah. So, that puts his age at twenty-four. The file lists his name as… Curse Levi."

"Excuse me?" Erwin said.

"It really says 'Curse Levi'," Wildfire said anxiously. "Apparently that's what his family called him."

"No wonder he changed his name," Erwin murmured. "It's amazing he retained any of it." He wondered if doing evil under that name was some kind of elaborate smear campaign on the family that had rejected him. Or an attempt to show that they couldn't actually get rid of him no matter how hard they tried. Maybe both. 

Erwin clasped his hands on the table before him and contemplated his fingers, mind racing. So here they had it, Curse Levi who wanted Erwin to know 'what he truly was', and Erwin had an inkling now of what he had been thinking of. 

He looked around at his team, all waiting expectantly, and already knew how they would play this. Better yet, if Levi responded the way Erwin expected him to, it should override Eren's objections – and he was the biggest opposition against having Levi join them, at the moment. Even Mike was looking less hostile, now that they knew more about their adversary. 

Before the end of this week, Erwin promised himself, he was going to see Levi at this table.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think one of the most fun things about this is that playing with superhero tropes allows all sorts of freedom :) thanks so much for the feedback, and I hope you continue to enjoy!
> 
> Next chapter: Eren comes onto the scene...


	4. Chapter 4

This plan sucked. Commander was probably completely and totally wrong about its chances of success, and if only Eren had the guts to tell him that, he probably wouldn't be in this situation. But he didn't, so here he was, dressed in torn, ratty clothes, hair extensions tied back into a ponytail, pretending to be running away into Levi's back yard. His friends would probably think playing at espionage was cool, but in Eren's opinion it was the worst. A fight was a fight, but spying was like getting tossed out of a plane without a parachute. Scratch that, Eren would _rather_ be tossed out of the plane. 

He really wasn't happy about this part, doing a mission without his costume, but he wasn't supposed to give away his identity as a superhero at all. Petra had tried to convince him to see the disguise as another type of costume, but Eren was finding it difficult. It just wasn't the same. Seeing his reluctance, Commander had assured him everything would be okay if he followed instructions; yet another instance Eren wished he could tell Commander to shove it. 

Eren didn't consider himself a particularly good actor, but in this case at least he knew exactly what it felt like to live the part he was playing. On the run from some big, shady organization, having no-one to trust… yeah, he'd been there. 

He paused about a meter before the edge of the bushes surrounding Levi's yard and collected himself, willing his memories to take him a few years back. He imagined running, the drone of motorcycles following inexorably. Imagined hiding in the back seat of a car while the driver, someone he didn't even know, lied to a passing policeman. Already his breathing was ragged with the memories and he felt a spike of adrenaline that spurred him forward. When he tore through the brush into Levi's backyard it was almost as if they were on his heels once again. The jolt into empty space surprised him for a moment and he stumbled back into the dubious safety of the hedge and looked backwards at imagined pursuers. A beat, and leaping steps took him across the yard, trying to stay out of the vegetable patch, and he dived into the bushes right near the stairs leading up to the screen door. Twigs scratched at his arms and face, but they were easy to ignore and would heal quickly. From the yard he'd be practically invisible, but anybody coming down the stairs could definitely…

A creak made him yelp in not-entirely-feigned fear and he crouched down lower, as if he might be shielded miraculously. The screen door opened. Even though he couldn't see, Eren could practically feel the presence at the top of the stairs. He realized, too late, that this position had his head hunched over with the back of his neck bared. He shuddered a bit at the feeling of exposure, thankful that at least the fake hair lay against his neck even though it wasn't actually a defense. 

Better was the fact that he had a lifeline: the rest of the team were listening in over the wire inside his collar, and could communicate with him through a tiny earpiece Widget had put together. If things went to hell, he'd have help in seconds.

"Hey, kid, I can see you there," Levi said. His voice was lighter than Eren had expected, dry but not mocking. "That's the crummiest hiding place I've ever seen."

Eren gulped and looked up, getting his first view of their enemy. Levi was starkly pale against his dark hair, his eyes washed out in the porch lights. Petra's drawing had been a good likeness, though it hadn't quite captured the sharpness of his features, the droop of his eyes. His clothes were decidedly normal - a tight sleeveless shirt that showed off impressive shoulders, and training pants. His left side was bulked up a bit with what Eren assumed was bandaging. 

"Sorry!" Eren blurted. "Please don't tell them – they're after me – I swear I'll get out of your hair-"

"After you?" Levi's lips thinned. "Stay there for a sec, kid. I'm not turning you in."

And just like that, Levi turned and went back inside. He was trying to hurry, Eren could tell, but limping badly, his body stiff around his left side. Mike had got him good. 

Should he go? Was Levi going to call the police? That would get really awkward… 

" _Hold your position,_ " Commander's voice came over the earpiece, so Eren shifted from foot to foot and hunkered down. He didn't have long to wait; Levi hobbled back out, scanning around (to check if the coast was clear?) before looking down at Eren.

"You still here? Are you stupid, kid? First rule on the run is don't trust anybody."

…Oh.

"But, here." Levi opened his wallet – evidently what he'd gone back to get – and riffled through it before pulling out a few bills and handing them to Eren. "Take this. It should be enough to keep you going."

Stunned, Eren could just hold out his hands to accept the _very large_ bills Levi was giving him. It didn't look like he had to worry about an attack, at least for the moment. 

"No, wait, take some more. Don't want you trying to whore yourself out or something stupid like that. Now listen up. You head straight for the train station and buy a ticket far away, but don't get off at that stop, in case somebody checks. Buy some food on the way – either stick to fast food or pretend your mom sent you for groceries, so make sure to buy things like eggs and stuff. Get a dye job, a haircut, and buy some new clothes. Don't trust anybody. Tell everybody a different story. Try to do odd jobs so you can keep the money going as long as possible. If anybody tells you they've got an easy fix, don't believe them. Change your name, but pick something you'll answer to naturally, and memorize a fake identification number, in case anybody asks. I don't know who's after you, but you probably want to stay away from the police. And for god's sake don't do any drugs."

Eren couldn't answer, just stared with his mouth open, the money clutched in his hand. Levi was… trying to help him? Kid on the run shows up on his doorstep and he gives him a whole talk about how to stay on the lam and money to help him do it?

"Oi," Levi growled at him. "What's wrong with you? You should get going. I'll head off pursuit if I see any."

He was supposed to get into Levi's house, though, that was the plan. "I'm so hungry," Eren tried. Petra had actually not fed him in preparation so he'd be able to present a convincing front, and mostly kept him from sleeping last night so he didn't have to feign exhaustion. 

"I don't care if you're hungry," Levi said, exasperated. "Don't take food from strangers! It could be drugged."

"But you're trying to help me," Eren said, sounding pathetic but that was probably good in this situation. 

"I could be trying to win your trust in order to betray you later."

"But you're not, are you?" Eren replied. This was fucking with his head so bad. Wasn't that what he was planning? To win Levi's trust and betray him? But Levi was the _enemy_ , he was a supervillain, so taking him down was the right thing to do. And for that he had to pretend he was being honest. 

Eren seriously wasn't cut out for this. 

Levi groaned and rubbed his temple with one hand. "I really think it's better for both of us if you just keep moving."

"I'm tired," Eren whimpered. "I haven't slept in ages. Please, mister, I swear I think I've got some time, and isn't sleeping on the train more dangerous? I won't have anybody watching out for me. Let me in, just for a bit, I swear I'll go afterwards."

"I'm not," Levi started, taking half a shuffling step backwards. He looked less assured now, worry lines deepening between his eyes. "I just…"

"Can't I use the toilet?" Eren said. "Please, mister." 

He could see the exact moment when Levi relented. His shoulders slumped and he shrugged, though his face was still tense. "You're an idiot," he said. "Come on in, if you're that desperate."

Yes. He watched while Levi turned and vanished back indoors, then unfolded and clambered out of the bushes and up the stairs. _He was in._

He wasn't sure what he had expected, but it wasn't this. The house was tidy, almost scarily so, extremely clean but rather sparse. The air was a bit stale, hinting that the windows were mostly closed. The blinds – white and plain – were drawn, shutting the house off from its surroundings. Shelves full of books covered the living room walls, a few zoology-related titles catching Eren's eye as he passed by. Almost lost among them was a large screen attached to a gaming system, boxes of games stacked neatly beside it. Interested, Eren recognized Portal, several Zelda titles and Devil May Cry 4 before a noise from Levi dragged him back to the present.

"Bathroom's that way, if you need to take a shit." Levi jerked his head towards the hallway leading off from the living room. He was watching Eren with a frown on his face, shifting from foot to foot in discomfort. Eren felt his eyes follow him as he walked in the indicated direction to enter a bathroom that smelled strongly of soap. 

It was hard to call it cozy – there was a towel on the floor by the bathtub instead of a proper bath mat, and Levi's lone toothbrush just lay next to the sink, no cup or anything. No decorations broke up the wall's harsh white tile and the light was just a plain fluorescent fixture. The only other towel was a bath towel on a hook behind the door, which Eren dried his hands on in lieu of anything else. 

Back in the living room he saw that Levi was still standing where Eren had left him, eyes fixed on him. Eren waited for him to do something, say something, but Levi just kept on watching him with a little frown that Eren had no idea how to read. 

Under the harsh lights of his living room he looked even whiter than he had outside, skin bruised purple beneath his eyes. From here, Eren could also see that he was remarkably short – maybe even as short as Armin – and looked a bit younger than the twenty-four he was supposed to be. He didn't look very villainous at all.

But then, neither had Reiner or Annie, and look how they turned out. 

Levi's right arm kept clutching at his side, wrapped around his stomach. That must be where the bullet wound was. Apparently he didn't have much in the way of healing abilities. Good. 

His side must really be hurting, because after about a minute of this he hobbled over to a sofa and sat down with a soft grunt. Since Levi didn't seem to know what to do with him, Eren took it upon himself to sit down as well, choosing a sofa across from Levi to settle gingerly upon. It felt stiff and new under him. 

Sweeping the room with his gaze once more, because Commander was prodding for information in his earpiece, Eren's eyes settled on the gaming systems once again. 

"You game?" Eren asked, for lack of anything better. He'd probably get kicked out in a minute anyway. Somewhere in his earpiece he heard a snort. "Do you multiplayer?"

"No. That would involve talking to people." Levi's tone was so deadpan Eren wasn't sure if it was an attempt at sarcasm or not. He didn't think Levi entertained many guests, though. Everything about his house seemed so… unused. "About that train..." Levi prodded.

"You said I could stay a bit," Eren whined, pretending it was Petra telling him to go to sleep because otherwise he might not have dared pull this sort of thing. Levi just sighed and didn't press him, allowing Eren's pulse to return to normal. Commander had been right; for whatever reason, Eren being a teenager was like some kind of magic as far as Levi was concerned. 

So he… what? He sold weapons and then distributed the money to desperate teens to soothe his conscience? But then, why do it in the first place, if Levi wasn't even going to enjoy the money? He could spare himself the philanthropy and the guilt in one go.

The rest of the Scouts hadn't said anything but he could tell that they thought it, that Levi was kind of like Eren. He couldn't agree with that even though he was trying to set it aside for the sake of this mission, because his heart kept screaming that it wasn't true at all. Levi might be playing nice now, but he was a bastard. He'd certainly not minded beating up Commander. 

He reminded himself of the briefing on Levi, to work up some sympathy. Kept in somebody's basement until the age of ten, they'd said. So fine, that was kind of awful. Eren kind of knew what that was like. 

"This is really nice of you," he said, trying to pretend Levi wasn't the enemy. He arranged himself more comfortably on the sofa. Levi didn't answer, just followed his movements with his eyes and made an unhappy sound when Eren went to put his shoes on the upholstery. Eren quickly put his feet back down. 

God, talking to Levi was _impossible_. "They killed my mom," he offered. He didn't mind saying it, in a way. He liked prodding at it every so often just to make sure it still hurt. It was why he still fought and would forever be. 

"I killed my mom," Levi said, his voice the kind of neutral that Eren recognized. None of the other Scouts could get that tone right. "That's why you should go. I'm not a good person."

It took Eren a second to remember that a normal kid would get scared, and he sat up and stared in what he hoped was a convincingly confused expression. "Then why're you helping me?"

"Why'd you ask me to?"

Eren swallowed. Why _would_ he ask somebody like Levi for help? He tried to disconnect the man in front of him from the fact that he was a supervillain, tried to see nothing but what was in front of his eyes. Levi wasn't like other adults Eren knew. He seemed more like a teenager than an adult, really. He was even teenager-sized. "Because you're nothing like my dad," Eren said. Not like Commander, either. 

" _Why did you kill your mom?_ " Commander's soft voice came over the earpiece. Eren nearly jumped. He'd forgotten they were listening. Shit, what a question to ask. Levi would attack him for sure and then what was the point? But then, maybe that would be better, having a nice clean fight, none of this feelings crap. So he repeated the question, even though he was inwardly cringing because it was kind of callous, even for him. 

Levi shifted again and tightened his arm around his stomach. He wasn't attacking but he probably wasn't going to answer either, and the silence was just getting awkward (well, _more_ awkward) when he said quietly, "I didn't mean to. It happened when I was born."

"Idiot!" Eren snapped, before he could even think. "That's not killing your mother! You were a baby, what did you know? You know what mother killing is? It's when your shithouse of a father injects you with some crazy shit to make you a shapeshifter, it's when they feed her to giant mutated failed experiments while you watch just to piss you off so you can be their good little killing machine-!" He was digging his fingers into the cushions, his voice echoing off the walls.

Aaand there went his secret identity. Shit. He could hear Commander and Widget muttering over the earpiece. 

Levi, however, seemed to take it in a completely different direction. His grey eyes were so wide Eren couldn't help but wonder if he was shifting them and he leaned forward, apparently forgetting his wound temporarily. "You're a shifter too?" he asked. 

Eren gulped. Nothing to do but roll with it, at this point. "Uh, kind of. I can only turn into one thing, though, and I can't control it very well. You're a shifter? Is that why you have all those zoology books?"

"Yeah." Levi was sitting up, eyes unnaturally bright in his pasty face. "But you've got to learn to control your powers, you hear me, kid? It's the worst if you can't. The worst." His voice was shaking with the effort. He was trying to keep it casual because he didn't know that Eren knew about his past. The whole conversation was unbalanced. This was all _wrong_ , Levi shouldn't be looking worried about _him_ when Eren was just lying. 

"I could help you, if you want," Levi was continuing. The hand that wasn't curled around his belly was picking at his pants. "Whatever you turn into, I could probably match it, I've gotten good, you wouldn't have to worry about going berserk and rampaging, and there's a mountain we can get to, it's outside of the city –"

"Ah, I don't…" Eren stammered, not sure how to continue but knowing he had to stop this _now_. 

It didn't really matter because Levi shut his mouth mid-word. He dropped his eyes to the floor, and when he spoke again it was unsteadily. "You should go, shouldn't you?" Eren hadn't recognized the beginnings of a smile until now when it was wiped clean off of Levi's face. 

Seriously, this guy was so fucked up Eren couldn't help a surge of pity. 

" _Say you'll take him up on his offer_ ," Commander's voice came. " _Apologize. Say you were scared_."

Shit. This was. Just— _shit_. He gulped. "Wait," he said, mouth tasting like ash. "I-I didn't mean that. I was, scared. To, to lose control." This was so wrong. What did Erwin hope to gain? He couldn't show Levi his Titan form, Levi would definitely recognize him. 

And yet, he thought for a moment, maybe Levi _could_ somehow teach him better control—no. None of this was real. He pushed on anyway. "Can you really help me?"

Levi looked hopeful again and Eren felt like the scum of the earth. This guy was so _not okay_. 

"No!" Levi burst out in another lightning-fast mood change. He jumped to his feet, even forgot to hold on to his stomach. "I can't help you. It'll go wrong. It always goes wrong. I'm not a good guy, see. You have to go."

" _Remind him he said he can help you. You need to convince him he's not a bad person_."

How the hell was Eren supposed to do that when he wasn't convinced Levi wasn't a bad person? Or was he? Levi just looked scared and lost, he _wanted_ Eren to stay with him, he'd be so happy if Eren wanted to, wouldn't he? Agreeing would be the easiest way out.

And then he'd find out that Eren had been lying to him. 

A chill went down Eren's spine at the thought. It was easy for Commander to orchestrate this from afar, but he wasn't here. He didn't have Levi's eyes in front of his face, didn't know what Levi looked like with the hint of a smile. When the inevitable betrayal came it was going to be so bad. So freaking bad. Levi would hate him and it wasn't _fair_ because this was all Commander's idea. 

"I'm sorry," he said. He stood up and faced Levi squarely, hands loose at his sides, back straight. "I lied to you."

" _What the hell are you doing?_ "

Levi jerked backwards with a small, involuntary sound of surprise.

"My codename's Titan. I was sent here because we were worried about you. I'm not going to hurt you – Commander just wants me to talk to you. We want to help you."

" _Eren! Stop it right now!_ "

"Commander," Levi said, backing away. "You're… with Erwin! You came to take me-"

" _Aww fuck,_ " Commander said (so his name was Erwin?).

"No!" Eren held his hands out and would have taken a step forward had Levi not twitched back. He was going to fight, Eren could see it in his eyes, just like he could see the lack of hope in them. "I'm not going to hurt you," Eren said, even though he knew Levi wouldn't believe him. Levi always expected to be hurt in the end – like Annie, who had locked her heart away and always attacked first, so she wouldn't be hurt. He _couldn't_ be responsible for pushing Levi in the same direction. "I don't want to fight!"

"I'll die first," Levi said, raising his fists in readiness. 

_"Get out of there!"_

_"Commander, should we go in?"_

_"Not yet, not until Levi's committed, or we'll push him over the edge."_

"You don't have to die!" Eren's voice cracked. "Nobody has to die, nobody's fighting!" Commander wanted him to run but he _couldn't_ , his legs were frozen in place. _This was how it had ended last time. Reiner wouldn't listen, wouldn't understand–_

It seemed like Levi didn't even hear him. His body rippled with the start of a shift, and Eren brought his hand closer to his mouth in preparation. _Not yet, not yet_ \- once he transformed there was no going back. His blood pounded in his ears as blades started to materialize out of Levi's forearms, elbows, back-

But the blades wouldn't solidify, just kept Levi's skin distorted and melting sickly along his body while his breath came hard through his nose and he clenched his teeth with the effort. If Levi couldn't shift maybe there was hope, he'd be _forced_ to calm down and communicate-

Levi opened his mouth as if to speak, then his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed to the floor.

"Levi?" Eren blurted. Was this a trick?

" _What happened?_ "

Eren advanced carefully, leaving a wide berth in case Levi was going to try and jump him suddenly, but the man didn't budge. Commander kept yelling in his ear, demanding to know what was going on. 

Taking a few steps closer, Eren nudged him with his boot. According to what the Commander had said Levi was more likely to attack than play dead. Eren knelt, shaking him carefully. Levi didn't even moan and his eyes didn't move behind the closed lids. "Levi? Are you okay?"

" _I swear I'm going to kill that kid, Widget. What the hell is going on in there?_ "

He touched fingers to Levi's throat, noting that his skin was reassuringly solid despite how he'd been shifting before. His pulse was weak, hardly fluttering at all. Eren grabbed him by the shoulders and shook. "Levi! Wake up!"

" _Eren, Commander's going to have an aneurysm in a moment here…_ "

Eren sat back on his feet, looking at Levi's nearly bloodless face. "I think we need to get him to the hospital. Now."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Augh, this chapter was super hard to write, and I'll confess I'm not 100% pleased with it.
> 
> Eren and Levi's relationship here is a complete reversal of what they have in the series, and it was really difficult to write them both while taking all these things into account, and still keeping them recognizably Eren and Levi. I hope I succeeded, and the chapter's not too much of a mess, orz...  
> I rewrote it a whole bunch of times and finally decided I should probably just post, and hope things will improve next chapter when I have a better handle on their characters. I hope you enjoy it anyway! 
> 
> As always, thanks to Zee for the help and encouragement, and for putting up with incessant requests to read it again and tell me what she thinks "because I added a word in the scene, it's totally different now!".  
> And thanks to all of you guys commenting >w


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the amazing feedback :) you especially made me feel good after I was so worried about last chapter! Totally got me writing again with enthusiasm.
> 
> I think there's hardly a single plotty fic I've written that doesn't have medical scenes! It's a thing I have, haha. And as always, thanks to my resident doctor who puts up with crazy questions like "so what happens when a shapeshifter goes to the ER with a gunshot in his abdomen?".

As Commander had promised, it only took about five seconds for the entire team to enter the house. A bit faster than the estimate, actually, as Eren saved them having to break down the door by opening it from inside. The house, previously so austere, now seemed overfull with everybody standing around. Eren kept his eyes on Levi's crumpled form and wondered if this was the greatest number of people to ever be in his house. Levi hadn't seemed particularly happy to have just Eren over; he'd probably take it badly. It felt even more like an invasion than his first attempt at getting in. At least Levi had invited him, then, albeit reluctantly. 

"Shouldn't we call an ambulance?" Eren asked when Commander lifted Levi easily into his arms. Levi didn't even move, completely out of it. He looked even tinier against Commander's size, and against the uniform's colors he was white as the walls. 

"We don't know what kind of insurance he has," Commander replied. "Better keep him as a John Doe in the meantime, and not disclose where he lives. Let's go."

Eren trailed anxiously after them through the empty foyer and out the plain front door. He still felt the need to protest. "But we always learned that it's better not to jiggle somebody and aggravate wounds."

"He's been running around with a hole in him all day, I doubt a little carrying will make it worse," Widget said. Lacking any other legitimate complaint, Eren filed quietly after them. Petra spent a few minutes searching in all the obvious places for a key to lock up the house, then shrugged and gave up when she didn't find anything. 

"We can't just leave it unlocked!" Eren protested. "What if a burglar shows up? They could steal his Playstation." Or, well. 

"Look who's changed his tune," Auruo said. "Charmed you, did he?"

Eren frowned and refused to back down, standing by the unlocked door pointedly. 

"Oh, _fine_ ," Auruo said. He pulled out a switchblade and nicked himself. A thin trail of blood came out, solidifying into a shape resembling a key. "Not a particularly fancy system," he said as he slid the blood-key into the lock and fiddled for a moment, then turned it and nodded in satisfaction at the click of bolts sliding home. "Happy now?"

"Yes." Eren gave a nod, then headed pointedly for Bloodhound's jeep, where Commander was currently maneuvering his way in carefully into the back seat, taking care not to jolt him too much. Eren's forward momentum was arrested by a sharp yank on the back of his belt.

"Not you, young man. They can take it from here, and you've got school tomorrow," Petra said.

Eren whirled around, a protest already on his lips. "This is my mission-"

"Not anymore it isn't. Now Commander's in charge."

"But!"

"No buts. It's a school night! Have you even done your homework?"

"Yes!" Eren protested furiously. "I did it all before we came! Pe-Wildfire, _please_ can we go to the hospital? I'm part of the team, aren't I? And it's my fault he fainted!"

Petra gave him a deep frown. From the corner of his eye Eren could see that Widget was climbing into the front of Bloodhound's car. They would be leaving any second. 

"It's not the end of the world," Auruo called to him from where he'd paused to watch Eren and Petra's spectacle. "I'm going home, too. I've got work tomorrow."

"You're not costumed," Petra said, ignoring Auruo. 

Eren pulled his mask out of his pocket and put it on, then swung a hopeful look to Petra. "I think he has a higher chance of trusting me than any of you, if he wakes up. And I feel _responsible_ for him," he said. Yeah, now Petra was biting her lip because she was always telling Eren that he had to learn responsibility. She tried hard, just sometimes being a Good Surrogate Mom got away from her. 

"Well," she wavered. "I suppose, just until we hear how he's doing… it's only 8:30. But when I say it's time to go, we go!"

Eren grinned and bounced off towards the car. That was the problem with being the youngest on the team, and a teenager to boot. They always tried to keep him away from the interesting stuff. 

"Ach, whatever," Auruo said. "If you're all going…"

A few minutes later Petra was following Bloodhound's jeep, while Auruo sped alongside both of them on his motorcycle. Eren was trying to win Petra over to the idea of getting one of his own when he was old enough for a license. The biggest argument against motorcycles, that they were dangerous, was happily even more moot in his case than in Auruo's. Eren's healing factor was super useful sometimes. 

They all swung into the hospital parking lot one after another. Almost before Petra got parked Commander was already out of the car with Levi and headed towards the emergency room, while the rest of them trailed after. Only when they burst in did Eren think about how dramatic they must all look, everybody costumed and Erwin carrying an unconscious person. Some of the people in the waiting room snapped photos of them. Seriously, did they have no tact?

He didn't have much time to dwell on bystanders, though, because a doctor rushed up to them to claim Levi from Commander's arms and get him onto a stretcher. Commander managed to say something about his having been shot before the doctors shooed him away, clearly signaling that he was quite irrelevant now. Eren backed away a few steps to where he could watch, fascinated, as several doctors and nurses crowded around, bringing over an array of tubes and needles, and doing mysterious things that seemed vaguely reminiscent of the medical dramas Petra liked to watch. Eren didn't have much experience with medicine, not having been sick a day in his life. He caught only a small snatch of conversation as they moved away, wheeling Levi down the hall. 

"Get a blood sample, get some blood into him, and tell the OR we're taking him up – the hell is that? Take his blood again, you fucked up."

"I did take it again."

"Huh. Fine, send it to the lab, then."

Eren would have liked to hear more but they had moved out of earshot. Shame he didn't have enhanced hearing. 

"I'm out of here," Bloodhound said, sounding strained. Commander nodded. 

"I'll update you if something happens."

Probably the smell, Eren thought, watching him go. Bloodhound couldn't completely 'turn off' his abilities, which sucked in this kind of environment. The rest of them trailed after Widget to the waiting room, where they joined a bunch of other worried-looking people sitting around on the colored chairs that exuded a painful aura of desperate cheerfulness. Eren slumped down in his seat. Well, so much for drama. 

"Can we go home yet?" Petra asked him under her breath, clearly thinking he'd cave because of boredom.

"No way," Eren replied. "I need to know that he's alright." 

She sighed. 

"I wonder if we'll be on the news," Auruo said. "Loads of people must have seen us. An entire superhero team bringing somebody to the hospital and waiting around, everybody's going to wonder."

"In that case, maybe you all should leave," Commander said. "We don't need _more_ people expressing interest in Levi."

"Oh for goodness' sake, just stonewall anybody who asks," Widget said. "You're so good at that. Or you could let me talk about my latest research, I'm sure they'll go away."

"We need to think about what to do with him once he's out of the hospital," Petra said. "He'll probably need somebody to take care of him."

"We can trade off dropping by his place," Commander suggested.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Eren found himself saying. "I don't think he likes people in his house."

Commander's eyes captured his and narrowed. "Speaking of people in his house, Titan, _what the hell was that?_ " 

Eren flushed all the way to the roots of his hair, thankful the mask covered at least some of it. He was just preparing to stammer out some sort of apology when Petra burst in.

"Titan obviously did what he thought was right!"

"Wildfire, I'm trying to talk to Titan-"

"Titan is a _teenager_ , and he's got no background in infiltration! Honestly, what did you expect, sending him in to lie to the poor man? Titan can't even lie to his teachers! He can't even make up decent excuses when he's home late!"

"God, stop it," he mumbled, mortified beyond belief. He was still blushing, for a completely different reason now. 

"It wasn't your fault," Wildfire reassured him. It was nice having Petra on his side, but this wasn't what he needed at the moment. It was the principle of the thing. Eren wasn't some stupid uncontrolled teenager. The last thing he needed was Commander thinking he was unreliable. 

"I didn't do it by accident," Eren said, leaning over to meet Commander's annoyed gaze. "I thought it was the best thing to do at the time. You didn't see his _face_ , Commander. I just…" Eren gulped. "I didn't want him to hate me, later. And I don't think I sabotaged the objective-"

"You don't even know what the objective _was_ ," Commander grumbled. But he must be calming down, because he sat back in his seat and crossed his arms, glowering off into the distance. 

"You could _tell us_ ," Widget suggested. "I know you get your kicks being pointlessly secretive, but I'm just reminding you there's no meaning to it."

"It doesn't matter," Commander said. "It's a moot point now." To Eren, he looked a bit like he was sulking. 

"At the end of the day, we _are_ saving his life," Auruo said. "That'll be worth some debt."

Nobody commented on the fact that it had been Bloodhound who shot him in the first place. 

They lapsed into silence for a few more minutes. Eren fidgeted on his chair then looked around the room at all the other people waiting. At least half of them had been watching the Scouts, but now that they saw nothing was actually happening they seemed to be losing interest. For his part, Eren was getting kind of bored, but anxiety was also starting to creep up again. Levi was going to be okay. This was a good hospital, and until half an hour ago Levi had been walking and talking. It couldn't be that bad. Still… He didn't like people getting hurt around him. He could hardly remember a time when he hadn't had his healing factor, and he'd met enough people to know that it was far more powerful than the usual. He could regrow entire limbs in a few hours; he didn't know what it was like, being hurt. Eren bit his lip. The doctors had seemed awfully serious. 

Eren sneaked a glance to the side, to see what everybody else was doing. Commander was staring off into space with a contemplative look, probably making up some more awful plans. Widget pulled some gadget out of her utility belt and was staring at it with great concentration, probably mucking with its insides. Petra looked bored, tugging absently at her gloves. None of them were exhibiting great worry. Eren took a deep breath to calm himself. Commander shifted in his seat. Widget held up some tiny screw and gave it a beatific smile. Petra stretched out her legs and yawned. 

"You could go home," Auruo offered her. "I'll hang around and bring the kid over when we're through here."

A ride on the motorbike! Eren straightened up hopefully. 

"Do you even have a second helmet?" Petra asked, suspicious. "Scratch that, do you even have _one_?"

"I don't need one!" Auruo protested. "I can make my blood harder than diamond. Not that anyone would manage to hit me in the first place."

"You're so reckless! One of these days you'll get into an accident and _I will laugh_. " 

No motorbike rides today, Eren thought glumly. At least Petra was entertained, now that she could rant at somebody passionately. He just hoped she wouldn't set anything on fire by accident, because that stuff got awkward. For a few minutes he toyed with the idea of texting Armin or Mikasa, just to alleviate the boredom, but that might make him look like he wasn't being serious. He tugged at his t-shirt and scratched at the ponytail. He hadn't noticed before in all the excitement, but his ratty clothes contrasted rather badly with the others' sleek uniforms. Come to think of it, one of his spare suits was in Petra's car, wasn't it?

"Hey." He nudged her, drawing her attention away from Auruo momentarily. "Can I have the car keys? I want to change."

She pulled them out of her utility belt almost without looking and went back to bickering. Eren grabbed them and jogged out. Under the back seat, exactly where it should be, Eren found his supersuit, then crawled out of the car, locked it, and headed over to Bloodhound's jeep. He tapped on the window and flinched slightly at the blast of music that greeted him when Bloodhound rolled it down. 

"Can I change in the back?"

Bloodhound nodded and jerked his head in a 'go ahead' manner. Eren climbed in the back, shut the door, and started shimmying out of his pants. Struggling to get the spandex on was always a pain when he had to change on-the-way like this. Some heroes kept their suits on under their clothes all the time, but that was only the lucky ones who could afford the fancy breathable micro-reinforced fibers. Eren had been saving up from his part-time job for ages because he knew Petra couldn't afford to buy him one of those. She worked hard and never demanded that he chip in with his own money, even gave him an allowance, but a suit like that was a big investment. 

Argh, fuck spandex. He went through all sorts of creative contortions trying to get it on while semi-horizontal on the seats. At least Bloodhound was nice enough not to make a big deal, still listening to his awful music and staring blankly out the window. Petra would have made no end of embarrassing helpful suggestions, and Auruo would have made "helpful" suggestions. 

There. Finally. Eren transferred his phone into his belt, handed the earpiece and wire to Bloodhound who dropped them nonchalantly somewhere in the mess up front. He then balled up his clothes and slid out of the car, carrying them back to Petra's, and at long last he could rush back to the ER and hope he hadn't missed everything. 

He felt much better now that he was properly dressed. The only thing he couldn't get out were the hair extensions, because he had no idea how Petra and Widget had attached the things. He tried tugging but it just felt like he was tearing out his hair, so he gave up for now. 

Going back in he got a lot more looks than before, now that he was recognizably a superhero and not just a scruffy kid in a mask. And apparently he hadn't missed much, because everybody else was still sitting around, only looking a lot boreder than they had twenty minutes before. Eren sighed.

As if summoned by Eren's return, a young doctor rushed in, surgical mask over his chin, and waved at them frantically. Eren's heart sped up as they followed him down the corridor.

"Your boy's not doing well," the doctor said, parking them all in some corner of the hallway. He had an earnest, overeager look about him, and large dark eyes. His nametag said his name was Kapur. "The bullet went clear through his spleen, so we stitched that right back up and pumped him full of O negative, but he's not responding. His body's still acting like he's got no blood in him."

"He's a shapeshifter," Commander said. "Is that-?

The doctor shook his head. "We've treated shifters before, there's never been any problem like this. But take a look at his blood." The doctor handed Commander a sealed vial of what looked like normal blood from afar, but Commander frowned at it, then passed it to Widget. 

"He's a very _extreme_ sort of shifter," she said. "That could be the problem."

The doctor shrugged and ran a hand through sandy brown hair. "If we don't get some blood into him, I'm afraid he won't last very long."

 _Show me_ , Eren wanted to demand, eyes following the test tube as it was passed between the adults, but forced himself to silence. Was this it? Was Levi going to die of blood loss, after they'd gone to so much trouble? He thought of those seconds before Levi had lost consciousness. If Levi never woke up, his last moments would have been nothing but terror. Maybe if Eren hadn't scared him so badly he tried to fight, Levi would be okay now… He swallowed around a lump of responsibility. 

"If only we could get a healer in," Commander murmured. "But everybody's doing disaster relief in Russia right now."

"Auruo, can you match this?" Widget asked, handing him the tube. Eren could see it closer, now. It was dark red like normal blood, but had a weirdly metallic sheen to it that kept coming and going. The liquid dynamics were strange, too, sometimes seeming thick and sometimes thinner than normal blood. It was like the blood wasn't quite clear that it was supposed to be blood. 

"I don't know what the hell this _is_ ," Auruo said. "I could try, though."

"We can't take much more than a unit from you, though," the doctor said. "We need more like… five. I don't suppose you've got a healing factor?"

"No, but Titan does!" Widget said, suddenly looking excited. "And Titan's a shifter! What if that's enough? Even if the blood type's not the same, maybe he can adjust, somehow!"

The doctor shrugged. "They're worth a try. I'll consult with the senior physician, you guys can go wait in room 103." He pointed down the hall. "Processing the blood will take an hour or so, but I think our John Doe can hold on that long."

"See?" Eren crowed to Petra while they followed the instructions. "Isn't it lucky I came?"

"Oh, shut up," she said. "At least wait until it works before you get all smug." Under her breath he heard her mumbling, "Another hour or so, so much for bedtime."

The room was small and empty, evidently meant for examinations and not for longer stays. Eren and Auruo got settled on the two beds, Eren just a bit more excited than he knew was proper. He'd worried that the hospital would give him flashbacks to the lab, but he was surprisingly okay with it. It helped that the rest of the team was standing around, and Petra was right next to him. The doctors all seemed pretty nice so far. If his blood matched Levi's, it would make up for his part in deceiving him. Kind of like an apology.

The young doctor from earlier came back in with his superior, a graying woman whose tag read 'Fintz'. The two were followed closely by a nurse, who headed for Eren while the two doctors descended upon Auruo. The nurse told Eren to bare his arm, which involved taking off the entire upper part of his suit. He should have just stayed in the t-shirt. At least Auruo had to go through the same process. While the nurse took blood from him, Dr. Fintz supervised Auruo's attempt to make his blood match Levi's. 

Eren craned around to watch while his blood was drawn out of his arm. Judging by the frowns on everybody's faces, it wasn't particularly successful. Then Dr. Fintz came over to his bed, supervising as the nurse closed off the bag. 

"Let's hope this works." She handed the bag of blood to Kupar. "Tell the lab to rush this batch." Kupar sped off, and she nodded at them. "Wait in here."

More waiting. Eren's sigh was echoed by some of the others. 

"Wait and see!" Widget said. "I'm sure it's going to work." She pulled out the tube of blood, which she'd evidently kept. "Just look at this stuff! His blood is _unstable!_ You realize, people have been theorizing for years what the ends of the superpower spectrum look like, and Levi might be an actual real-life case! I wonder, is it possible to stimulate his blood to shift even without his conscious control? Oh my god, if only I had a microscope!"

Eren swallowed uncomfortably, a sudden flash of memory intruding. He knew Widget wasn't a bad person, but she just got so _enthusiastic_. His shit father had been _enthusiastic_ about his sick research, too. A warm hand found his, and he blinked to realize that he was scowling, and Petra had taken his hand. 

"Ignore Widget," she said. "Some people have no sense."

"I'm _fine_ ," Eren protested. But he didn't move his hand. 

It seemed like barely a few minutes had passed before Kupar tore back into the room. "Perfect!" he crowed. "He's drinking it up. Come on, kid, we're going to bleed you dry."

Eren couldn't keep a grin off his face. Levi was going to survive. The nurse set up another needle in his arm, and soon Eren felt just a bit lightheaded and warm all over as liter after liter of blood was taken from him. It took his body a bit to recognize what was wrong and correct it, but soon enough he was replacing blood as fast as they took it. All his blood was going into Levi, he thought, and he really hoped that Levi was a good guy. He _had_ to be a good guy, right? After they were going to all this trouble to save his life. 

At least with this Eren could call it even between them, for the money Levi was willing to give him, and for wanting to help him out. Levi would have rescued the runaway he thought Eren was, and here Eren was rescuing him back. 

Once the blood had all been taken, the Scouts were shooed back into the waiting room, since Eren clearly needed no recovery time. More waiting. Great. 

"Good job, everyone," Commander said. 

"I didn't _do_ anything," Eren felt compelled to protest while Widget gave a cheerful 'yep!'. 

"So what next, great leader?" Auruo asked Commander. "We take the nutter home and feed him chicken soup until he likes us?"

Commander hummed. 

What if Levi didn't _want_ to join them, though? Levi might agree, if it was either that or prison (or death), but how could they work with a partner who just wanted to get away? How could they possibly have Levi fight by their side if his heart wasn't in it? Eren wouldn't cooperate with lying to him again, but what were they going to _do_ with him now?

The minutes ticked by painfully. Eventually Eren broke his no-cellphone rule and started playing something, just to pass the time. He'd installed an emulator a few weeks back, and was glad to see the system supported some of the older ROMs quite handily. 

Finally Dr. Fintz came back in. Eren jumped to his feet, but his heart gave an unpleasant flip at the look on her face. 

"He's stable," she said. 

_But_ , Eren waited for the _but_.

"But you should come take a look. There were some unexpected side effects." She glanced at Eren, then away. 

The five of them rushed after her, out of the Emergency Room and into another section of the hospital. Everything was quieter here, none of the crazy rushing going on a few doors down. Dr. Fintz ushered them into a small as-cheerful-as-possible single room, and there, lying comatose in bed was—

"Oh," Eren said.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi wakes up and nothing at all is to his liking.

"Of _course_ I'm doing my homework," Eren told Petra over the phone, trying to sound serious and not defensive. He glanced guiltily over to where his unsolved math problems sat on the small bedside table, then back to the sleeping figure in bed.

He _was_ going to do his homework. He disconnected the call and slid his phone decisively into his bag, then hitched the chair over to the makeshift desk once more. Working on it would leave a kink in his back, especially as this was the second day he was spending his afternoon in the hospital room.

It wasn't that he was trying to shirk. It was just that Levi was so _distracting_. It wasn't like seeing himself in the mirror, or even a photograph. His gut said that his features on Levi were distorted, though his mind knew that wasn't the case. Levi looked exactly like Eren did; even Petra thought so. Same straight, messy brown hair, same olive skin, same upturned nose and argh that was what was so weird about this! Eren just spent hours staring at himself, cataloguing his own looks, thinking about whether he liked the shape of his nose from _this_ or _that_ angle, noticing a freckle right at the juncture of neck and jaw that he'd never really paid attention to before but now seemed abnormally big, thinking that his eyelashes were kind of long and girly and that made him think about Mikasa's eyelashes which were also really long and did she put on mascara? 

Staring at his face made him want to do things to it. Poke it to see what it felt like from the other side. Shave his head just to see what it looked like. He wondered what he looked like laughing or frowning, wondered what Levi's expressions would do to his face. 

Still, even though their features were identical, they weren't quite the same. Levi's hair was longer than his, past his shoulders, uncut. It was kind of wavy at the bottom. Eren hadn't known his hair got wavy when it was long. Eren's skin was darker than Levi's, still tanned from the summer sun, though autumn was on its way. The small burn scar on Eren's forearm, gotten when he was a child before his powers awoke, wasn't visible on Levi's skin. 

And oops, there went half an hour and Eren hadn't done anything but stare at Levi. Again. 

Eren forced his attention back to the math, and for the next three problems managed to keep his eyes on the paper. 

"What are you doing?" a voice rasped. Eren jumped to his feet so suddenly the light aluminum chair crashed to the floor with a loud clatter, making him jump again. The figure on the bed jumped as well, flinching backwards and staring at Eren with wide, mistrusting green eyes.

Levi was awake. Eren gulped. "Homework," he said.

"What?"

"I'm doing my homework."

"Why here?"

"Because I wanted to be here when you woke up." Eren grabbed the chair and straightened it so he could sit back down and not tower over Levi so much. "I needed to tell you that I wasn't lying when I said that I was being chased, and that I can't control my powers." The words rolled out of him easily; he'd run them through his mind so many times in the past few days, practiced for this exact scenario. "Being chased was… that was a while ago. The Scouts rescued me then. But I was experimented on by my father, and I can't control my powers very well. That was true."

Levi's expression shifted minutely, then he scowled. "Why do you think I care?"

"Oh." Eren deflated, feeling oddly hurt. It _mattered_ that he wasn't lying, didn't it? Though he _had_ misled Levi, and that meant that – well, it didn't matter. Taking Levi up on his offer had never really been an option. Eren swallowed disappointment. 

Levi watched him out of the corner of his eye, pretending indifference. Then he shifted to stare up at the ceiling. He fidgeted, poked with one finger at the IV in the back of his hand, then left it alone pointedly. 

"Do you mind if I call the others?" Eren asked. "They wanted to know when you woke up."

"Do whatever you want."

It would be easier if only Levi would just _react_. Eren didn't know what he was supposed to do now, so he pulled out his phone and tapped out a quick message. 

"Erwin put you up to this, didn't he?"

It took Eren a moment to process the question. He was too busy listening to the rise and fall of his own voice, sounding different from the way it did in his own ears, but also not the same as a recording or on TV. The intonations changed, the words drawling where Eren didn't and chopping off unexpectedly. "Eh?" 

"Erwin," Levi repeated, annoyed. "This is another one of his shitty plans, isn't it?"

So Commander's name really _was_ Erwin. He knew why they weren't supposed to know each other's identities, but he still felt a thrill of excitement at the forbidden knowledge. 

"What do you mean?"

"This." Levi lifted his left hand, the one with the IV in it and flopped it against the table. "And you sitting here looking at me all vulnerable."

" _No_ ," Eren said, stung. He wasn't looking _vulnerable_. "They didn't even want me to be here, but I insisted. I felt responsible."

"Well, you have nothing to feel responsible over. Now bugger off."

"You were a lot nicer last time." He'd been so stupid, thinking Levi would want anything to do with him, or that his presence would somehow make Levi feel better about what happened. 

"And look where that got me." Levi sighed. "So how am I still alive? And why? So I can go to prison? Nice. I always wondered what being lobotomized felt like."

"Nobody's getting lobotomized." Commander ( _Erwin_ , Eren's mind supplied gleefully, and he studied Commander's features intently for a moment before deciding that Erwin suited him) strode into the room. Levi's attention turned to him immediately, and now Eren saw that Levi had actually been reasonably relaxed in his presence. Now Levi tensed way up, and the heart monitor was doing double time. Levi must have realized as well that it had betrayed him, as he shot the machine an annoyed glance. Widget and Petra followed Commander into the room and arranged themselves at the foot of the bed. 

"As for being alive, Eren's blood was a match for yours. Apparently being a shifter made him compatible, though Widget says his healing factor probably had something to do with it as well."

"Remember what I said about excitement," a nurse, who Eren only just noticed tailing his teammates, said dryly. "It's not even been one minute."

Commander gave a slight nod, then continued. "I assume that it's because of Eren's blood that you're looking like that."

Levi narrowed his eyes. "Looking like what?" He raised a hand to his eyes and contemplated it, curving Eren's fingers and flexing them. Then he opened and closed his mouth, stuck out his tongue, and made a variety of odd faces. "It _feels_ like my body," Levi said. "I can't de-shift. And even if I could, being wounded – oh." He fell silent when he caught sight of himself in the mirror the nurse held out to him. "I look like the brat."

"Oi." Eren couldn't help bristling. 

The nurse, in the meantime, pressed a button to that made Levi's bed bend, pushing him into sitting position. He seemed mildly surprised, and his thanks to her were rather more civil than the tone he took with the rest of them.

"So what now?"

Eren shifted uncomfortably. Shouldn't Levi be reacting, well, _more_ to the fact that he looked like Eren now? Though maybe for a shifter like him this stuff was normal. Commander cleared his throat. 

"We would rather not have a double of one of our members running around," he said. "It would compromise Titan's identity. You're ready to be discharged, but since you still need care and will for a while yet, I propose that we continue to take care of you until you're well and have returned to yourself. Issues of your… deeds can be discussed later," he added, with a sidelong glance at the nurse. 

Eren hadn't heard of this plan. Typical. He tried to catch Petra's eye but she was looking at Levi. He shifted his gaze back as well. Levi was frowning.

"And what if I can't?" he asked Erwin.

"Can't what?" 

"Turn back."

"Is that likely?"

Levi shrugged and looked down, picking at the blankets covering his legs. "It's my damage. If I lose consciousness shifted, it's… hard for me to switch back. I once spent four months as a rock before I remembered that's not what I was supposed to be. Between being unconscious and you pumping me full of his blood, I don't know. Maybe." For some reason, he was looking at Eren while he said it. But his expression was still neutral, and he still made it sound like it didn't matter. 

Eren thought of looking in the mirror and seeing somebody else's face, not just for a week or two but _forever_ , and blurted out hotly, "Doesn't that _bother_ you?"

"What should I do, cry about it? Won't help much. It feels normal, for now. I bet once I get up it'll be a bit weird, but…" He shrugged helplessly, then winced. "As long as I don't look in a mirror, this feels like _me_. And you'll be happy to know I can't do much shifting now, so I won't be resisting your plans. Can't." 

"Why are you telling us this?" Erwin asked. 

"Because you'd see through a bluff in about three seconds anyway. Besides, if you thought I could shift you'd probably lock me up in the basement or something while you slept."

Erwin frowned thoughtfully. "You could be lying."

Eren only saw the look that flickered over Levi's face because he could barely drag his eyes away, and only recognized the slight tightening of his jaw for what it was because he knew what it felt like. 

"He's not," Eren blurted, managing to not look at anybody. "He isn't lying to us." Not like he'd lied to Levi. 

"There's another option," Levi said quietly into the ensuing awkward silence. "Drop me at home and leave me alone. I'll stay inside until I'm healed enough to shift so the kid won't be in danger. And then I vanish and get out of your hair for good."

"You're not going anywhere alone," the nurse spoke up again. "You've got a ruptured spleen and had nearly all your blood replaced. You won't be able to do much in the way of walking, feeding yourself, or using the bathroom unassisted for a while yet."

"I'm supposed to have these people help me _piss_?" Levi demanded. His voice cracked at the end (excuse Eren for still growing), making it sound more plaintive than angry. Petra met Eren's eyes and couldn't quite suppress a smile. Levi scowled.

Did he look like this when he was annoyed? Eren wondered in fascination. His eyes flashed green and his face was so… dramatic, the eyebrows scrunched up, lips thin and curled at one side, showing a hint of teeth. He looked kind of scary, Eren thought, and Levi wasn't even that angry. Suddenly the fact that Petra sometimes told him he needed to watch his anger seemed less like picking for the sake of picking. 

He would never mention this, of course.

"Be that as it may," Commander was saying in a conciliatory tone, "Widget has volunteered to take you home with her and look after you for a few days. See how you like it."

Levi gave her a deeply mistrusting look. "So it's going to be shitty glasses here helping me piss? Look, what if I just go home and somebody drops by once a day to make sure I'm not dead, if you really care about it that much?"

"I think we're going to get along _great_ ," Widget said with a wide grin. "I want to hear all about what it's like, being a shifter! Do you feel any different now that you've got Eren's blood? Are you manifesting any new abilities?"

"Not now, Widget," Erwin said. "You'll have him all to yourself soon enough."

"Oh god." Levi slid down in bed in what looked suspiciously like a sulk. 

Things moved quickly after that. Levi found much to his disgruntlement that he was almost too weak to walk on his own, so Commander helped him to Widget's beat-up car (which, Eren knew, could grow cannons at the press of a button), easily supporting him with one arm. And then Levi was bundled up in the seat next to Widget, looking just a bit pale and pained and not at all happy. Eren caught one last glimpse of mournful green eyes looking at him helplessly before the car whisked out of the parking lot. 

"Shall we get going?" Petra suggested after the car was no longer visible. Eren nodded, and followed her to their own car.

"Would't it be less awkward if he went with Commander, since they're both guys?" Eren asked, once they were on the way.

"Levi spent the last few days trashing Commander's house. It's not really fit for hosting, and really, kind of awkward all around. Bloodhound was willing to take him, but since he's the one who shot Levi we didn't think he'd want to go, and Auruo's got roommates."

"What about us?" Eren asked before he could stop himself. Petra's eyes left the road to shoot him a glance, which he deflected with a nonchalant shrug. 

"You've got _school_ ," Petra said. "And where would he sleep? We can't put him on the sofa with that wound."

Eren was pretty sure that other superheroes didn't have to put up with this stuff. 

But then, other superheroes didn't have to worry that social services would take them away if they weren't pleased. Eren was insanely lucky that his healing factor meant that it didn't matter how many fights he got into, it wouldn't raise questions with the guidance counselor at school. He could just imagine how much it would suck if he had to leave Petra. He'd probably have to quit the Scouts, too. Being an underage superhero was the worst.

"Besides," Petra continued, her eyes back on the road. "You need to get your life back to normal. Between the commute and sitting by Levi's bedside you've hardly spent time with your friends."

Eren sighed. Sometimes it felt like Petra was more invested in his social life than he was. 

After a few minutes of silence Petra put on some music. She had the absolute worst taste, it was all this awful peppy pop stuff. Eren was pretty sure she listened to boy bands, too. He was just about to get out his mp3 player and blast something loud enough to block out both the music and Petra's slightly off-key singing when Petra's phone went off. 

"Get that?"

"It's Widget," he said, and put it on speaker, then turned down the music.

"So, Wildfire!" Widget's too-cheerful voice burst out of the small phone. 

"And Titan," Eren added. "Wildfire's driving."

"And Titan. Long time no see, and it's about to get shorter, because our little ball of fun is acting up again."

Petra sighed. "What now?"

"He says my house is messy and is refusing to enter. He's crawling back to the car now. It's a pretty sad sight."

 _"Messy doesn't begin to describe it,_ " Levi could be heard shouting in the background. _"There were things growing on your carpet! And-"_

"You get the idea," Widget said. "Now if you're dead against him coming to you I'll figure something, but the guy looked pretty ill, and our dear Commander wants him alive."

"Fu-," Petra began, banging the steering wheel and only just managing to abort. She immediately looked guilty.

"You can say fuck," Eren said helpfully. "I know that word."

"You know why it's a problem," Petra said, ignoring Eren. "If he decides to screw us over-"

"If he decides to screw us over we're already in trouble," Widget replied, lowering her voice. "He knows where I live, he knows where Commander lives. If we want to kill him, now's the time, before he recovers. But I thought we were banking on rescuing a lost soul, here."

"I know you haven't spent much time with him," Petra said, after a short silence. "But what's your impression?"

" _I_ spent time with him," Eren muttered. But did anybody bother asking him?

Petra glanced at his mulish expression and sighed. "I _know_ what you think of him, Eren. It's quite obvious. But another opinion never hurts."

Widget's voice crackled softly from the speaker. "I think it's been a very long time since anybody tried to take care of him."

Petra pulled over abruptly enough to make Eren squeak, flicked on the danger lights, and just sat, not saying anything. A few passing cars honked at her irritably but she ignored them, staring at the wheel while chewing her lower lip. Eren watched her quietly, fidgeted a bit, and was just considering saying something when Petra spoke again.

"I'm turning around," she said finally. "We'll meet at the corner of Fifth and Sixth, there's a park there. We need to talk." With a quick movement of her right hand she swiped her finger across the screen to disconnect the call and looked at Eren. They needed to move, he thought; they were sort of in the middle of the highway. But he didn't say anything. 

Petra wasn't wearing her mask at the moment, so Eren could see her expression clearly. A light button-up shirt in a pastel color somewhere between blue, green, and white camouflaged her uniform from passersby, though anybody who looked down at her legs would be able to see the spandex. From the waist up she looked like a normal person, though her hair was still in its superhero-do with its extensions. 

"Have you really thought about what it means to have a strange man come live with us?" she said, her tone serious enough to make Eren take notice, though he'd been paying attention before anyway. "Forget for a moment whether or not he's a supervillain. He's a stranger with issues, and he's going to be in our house for who knows how long. He's going to need a lot of care. Hell, he probably needs a therapist. He's probably going to be a black hole sucking up our energy. I bet he's the kind of guy who complains whenever things aren't exactly the way he likes them."

"We can do it," Eren said staunchly, though he thought momentarily of just how scarily clean and untouched-looking Levi's house had been. "We're heroes, aren't we? It's our job to rescue people."

"Superheroes normally rescue people from very specific problems," Petra said. She wasn't looking at Eren now, just watching the cars rush past them without really seeing them. "We jump in when there's big, dramatic stuff happening. We save the world from evil. We don't go around distributing food to the homeless or helping kids from broken families do their homework. We've rescued people from car crashes and burning buildings, but we've never taken any of them home to make sure they get taken care of. If Levi didn't have powers, we probably wouldn't even be bothering with him."

"What are you trying to say?" Eren demanded, somewhere between frustration and annoyance. "That we should help more homeless? What does that have to do with helping Levi? He needs us!"

Petra gave him a long, unreadable look. "Right," she said, and started the car.

"Right what? I don't get it!"

"Forget it. Let's go talk to Levi."

"Hey!"

Petra turned up the music.

\---

They convened in the park Petra had mentioned, which actually turned out to be a playground. It was one of the new ones where instead of the traditional castle or ship made of wood for kids to climb on they were outfitted with bewildering contraptions of metal that looked rather like shiny spiderwebs. Still, they made for good climbing. At this hour of the day the park was mostly empty but for a few parents with small children who hadn't yet gone in for the evening, and the beginnings of the surly groups of teenagers that came out at night. Some of the other people gave them startled glances then looked away, pretending not to notice. They surely looked like an odd group, three superheroes and Levi, pale and slightly pained where he sat on a bench, dressed in some of Eren's clothes. Though maybe it was just Eren who thought he looked strange, since he couldn't help the slight unease every time he looked at his own face on somebody else. On the other hand, Eren decided that though Petra complained that his fashion sense was 'painfully stereotypically teenager' and could he wear some pants that weren't either five sizes too big or five too small _please_ , he rather liked how his clothes looked on him. 

"Long time no see!" Widget said cheerfully. Levi grunted unhappily. It probably wasn't just crabbiness, Eren thought. He'd gotten a whole list of medications to take and could probably use a painkiller or two about now. 

"Lovely, I'm sure," Petra replied. Eren thought of waving to Levi but aborted the gesture. It would have looked stupid anyway, and no way Levi would have waved back. "So," she said to Levi severely. "You didn't like Widget's house and threw a tantrum."

"I won't live in filth," he said tightly. "If I were in any shape to clean I would deal with it, but I can't. Drop me off at my place and I'll make do."

"You barely managed to walk here from the car," Widget said. Levi glared at her. "I'm just _saying_."

"Our house has a few rules, beyond the general 'don't be an asshat'," Petra said. "I'm going to tell you something about superheroes now, and about Titan, so you understand that if you hurt him, you'll be hurting him as a kid, not as a superhero."

 _Petra_ , Eren wanted to complain, but even he could recognize that now was very much not the time for that. Levi was listening, his gaze intent on Petra, and Eren thought that was probably the right note to strike with him. He had a soft spot for kids, apparently. 

"I'm his foster-mom," Petra said. "But as superheroes, there's nothing to connect us, not even sponsorship, so as far as anybody knows we're just friendly within the team. But child services like to come by. They think that I'm too young to raise a teenager, especially since I'm not married, and it's lucky that Titan's a great kid most of the time and then raises hell whenever they so much as hint about taking him away. But if they knew he was a superhero and that I'm one too there'd be questions about grooming and child labor and I don't even know what else. If you fuck this up, Titan's going to lose his home. And I'm going to kill you." The last sentence was punctuated by an inadvertent lick of flames curling from her hands. Petra was so fired up she practically had sparks coming out of her eyes, and Eren knew that she would stand by her words. 

She wasn't saying anything he hadn't heard before. It was why Eren worked hard in school and kept his grades up, stayed out of trouble even though Jean was a complete and utter asshole, and was lucky that he had Armin and Mikasa – who were also willing to cover for him in a pinch. 

It made him glad to see that Levi was taking it seriously, though. Eren _knew_ he wasn't wrong about him. 

"I understand," Levi said. "I won't jeopardize Titan's home." He exchanged a long look with Petra, until she gave a sharp nod. 

"I keep forgetting Commander didn't sponsor you, either," Widget commented, breaking the silence. "Titan's the only one, isn't he? Both Bloodhound and Commander were sponsored by Shadows, were you also?"

"What's sponsored?" Levi asked Eren, a bit bewildered at the turn of the conversation, now that Widget and Petra were tossing names of superheroes back and forth. 

"It's how you get to be a superhero," Eren replied. "You need to be vouched for by somebody with at least three years of active duty and a good record. Then you work with them for a while. It's especially convenient for teams, because we can absorb new members more easily than the singles. They're super stuffy. One of the big names, he'll only have one trainee at a time and he always gives them the same name. Rumors say half of them are related, too." Eren sighed. It might have been easier to go with one of the big names, he thought sometimes. They'd get him a proper suit and everything. But he wouldn't leave the Scouts, especially not after running missions together. 

"Nepotism," Levi snorted under his breath. "Figures."

"Not that many people want to join the Scouts, even for sponsorship," Eren added, since Levi actually seemed interested. "But we're a good team. You should see the drama that goes on when the big names try to team up, it's sad. Once they were so busy fighting each other while the capital was about to blow up that we actually swooped in and-"

"Boys!" Petra called, as if they hadn't been waiting for _her_. 

\---

The drive home was uneventful. Levi quieted down and didn't speak much, though Eren tried to draw him into conversation. Eventually he gave in to Levi's apparent desire to be left alone staring out the window. He watched Levi's face for some reaction when the pulled into the driveway of their apartment building, but Levi didn't say anything to Petra's slightly strained "here we are!". 

They were all in civvies now, though Petra had lent Levi a pair of sunglasses in the hopes of keeping him from being recognized obviously as Eren on the way up to the apartment. But luckily nobody noticed them, and their ride in the elevator to the ninth floor was uninterrupted. 

"It's a bit of a mess," Petra said, when she'd unlocked the standard steel-reinforced door and ushered them in. Eren tried to see it from an outsider's perspective, especially remembering Levi's complaints about Widget's house, and flinched a bit. It's not that it was _dirty_ , but the small two-sofa living room wasn't the most organized. Some of the colorful sofa pillows had made their way to the floor, because Eren liked sitting on them to watch TV, and Petra's mug from this morning was sitting in the middle of the coffee table. The fluffy carpet in its cheerful pattern of reds and blues on a cream background was just a bit faded, but the drapes were new. Eren had helped make them six months ago, picking out the semitransparent fabric with its woven flowers together and figuring out how to use the sewing machine Petra had inherited. The kitchen wasn't in direct view of the door, being to their right and almost directly behind them, so at least Levi's first impression wasn't of the small pile of dishes in the sink. Just from today, though. 

To the right a corridor led down to the bathrooms and the two bedrooms. Paintings by Petra lined the walls, mostly landscapes, though there was the occasional scene with people. 

"You'll be in Eren's room," Petra said, and Levi finally reacted, looking a bit startled. "His bed opens up, and having his clothes strewn around there won't seem odd."

"I don't leave my clothes _strewn around,_ " Levi muttered. "You'd really trust me to sleep in the same room with him?"

"If you wanted to hurt him, I highly doubt Eren's _bedroom door_ would be the thing to stop you," she retorted dryly. "Besides, the only other option would be my room, and that would just be awkward. What with you looking like Eren and all. I'm Petra, by the way, but don't use that name around the others."

Levi nodded, looking a bit stunned at how smoothly the conversation had moved on. 

"Come on!" Eren said. "I'll show you my room, and then you can lie down there, or here, wherever you want."

"I'm fine," Levi insisted, but when Eren helped him down the short hallway he was leaning more heavily on Eren than he had previously. "That's the bathroom," Eren said, nodding at the other door. "I hope you're not a hog, because we only have one and Petra's already kind of bad about that."

"Hey!" Petra called from above the sounds of water running in the kitchen. 

Eren shot Levi a grin which wasn't returned. Levi wasn't really looking at him, his eyes a bit glazed and staring ahead. Eren pushed open the door to his room and entered. Levi roused a bit to look around. The walls were cluttered with standard teenage looking things – posters of sports players and the occasional movie or video game. In the corner under the window sat the classic guitar that he was always meaning to practice but never got around to, what with heroing and training and stuff. Day-old clothes were draped over the back of the chair at his desk, which had papers and notebooks piled on it in haphazard piles that Eren liked just the way they were, thank you. His sheets were rucked up because he'd never seen the point in making his bed, since he would just mess it up again later. 

Levi didn't say anything as Eren helped him sit down on the bed, only let out a tight breath and looked around some more. 

"I don't really care about sports much," Eren found himself trying to fill the silence. "But it looks good for when the social workers come, 'cause they like team-related stuff…"

"Not bad," Levi said. Then he collapsed sideways in a slow slide, closed his eyes, and went to sleep right on Eren's bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yep, a lot of you saw it coming! But then, I didn't really bother trying to hide the twist too hard, because I figured it was reasonably obvious, especially if you're a fan of superhero things :) still, I hope you guys were pleased with the result. As always, thanks so much for your comments and encouragement! 
> 
> Sorry it took me so long, though! I've been acclimating to my new home and haven't had nearly as much writing time as I expected. Still, I hope you enjoyed this chapter :) and don't worry, it's not _just_ going to be relationship drama from here on out - their troubles aren't over...
> 
> And if you haven't, seriously, go check out the [fic: hell of a lot more](http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/fic:-hell-of-a-lot-more) tag on tumblr! There's some cool art there~ party on the tag, yo.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait orz at least this chapter's longer than the previous ones!  
> Lots of Eren and Levi hanging out, too.
> 
> That said, I have to apologize for it being a bit less polished than normal. All sorts of stuff going on, and I just... it was either post or rewrite from scratch. So I hope you'll forgive the mess -_-
> 
> ALSO if you haven't seen check out these two amazing fanarts by Hellraven! Seriously, they are absolutely gorgeous.
> 
> [Hey Kid, I can see you there](http://sterlingraven.deviantart.com/art/Hey-kid-I-can-see-you-there-432601288?ga_submit_new=10%253A1391845043) for chapter 4
> 
> And this stunning one of [Erwin and Levi's fight in chapter 2. ](http://sterlingraven.deviantart.com/art/Erwin-Vs-Levi-superhero-AU-431809753)
> 
> I swear they are a treat for the eyes *_*

Eren realized later that Levi falling asleep so easily that first evening was a fluke, and probably owed a lot to exhaustion and pain medication. But at the time he thought it was normal, and left it be.

 As evening drew on and Levi showed no signs of waking up, Eren opened up the other bed for himself to sleep on. He tried to be as quiet as possible, but Levi didn't even twitch. Over dinner he waged a short, pitched battle with Petra over who would stay home with Levi. They wouldn't stay with him every day, but at least for the first one of them should be around to show him what was where and make sure he didn't spontaneously keel over. Petra argued that she should be the one to stay, to which Eren countered that he could more easily miss a day of school than she could of work. Petra only wavered for a few minutes before giving in.

 "I don't want to leave you here alone with him," she said reluctantly. She sighed at the look Eren gave her at that, and added a bit plaintively, "it's my _job_ to worry, okay?"

 So Eren waved goodbye to her the next morning, and then spent half an hour frying up a stack of pancakes before he even considered that he didn't know whether Levi liked pancakes or not. But who _didn't_ , he thought. Besides, if Levi didn't want them Eren could always eat them himself and make something else.

 Periodically (read: every ten minutes) he checked to see if Levi was up yet, until he finally showed signs of stirring sometime after 9:00. In a flash, Eren was by his bedside with a cup of water and the handful of pills he was supposed to take every morning.

 Levi opened bleary eyes, caught sight of Eren and jerked, breath choking to a stop and his entire body going rigid, then choked out a whimper and clenched his eyes shut. Eren nearly dropped the pills.

 "Are you okay?"

 "Don't _do_ that," Levi wheezed as he tried to breathe his way through the pain.

 "Do what?"

 "Lurk around watching me sleep."

 "I wasn't," said Eren. "I just checked on you and you looked like you were waking up, so I went to get your pills 'cause I thought you'd want them."

 Levi rolled his head sideways on the pillow and shot Eren a very flat glower. "Do you have to be so damn _wholesome_? God, where did they even find you?"

 As this statement didn't seem to warrant much of a reply, Eren set down the cup and pills on his nightstand and helped Levi sit up so he could take them. Levi didn't complain, though his breath hissed some more in what Eren figured was pain, though he tried to be as gentle as he could. Levi only hesitated a moment when he saw all the pills, but then shrugged fatalistically and took every single one, not even asking.

 "They're painkillers," Eren blurted, because he remembered what it was like to be trapped in a lab, where his food was drugged with who-knew-what, where sometimes the muzziness of being doped up was better than being lucid and _knowing_ what they were doing to you. "And that one's antibiotics, and-"

 "It doesn't _matter_ ," Levi cut him off harshly. "You could be feeding me goddamn arsenic and I wouldn't know. You could give me crack and tell me it's antibiotics. For all I know, that's your plan, getting me addicted to something and then using it as leverage."

 "It's _not_!" Eren said furiously, sick to his stomach. He wouldn't do that to somebody. He didn't mind fighting, could punch somebody in the face with no compunctions, hell, when the rest of the team let him he'd take out bad guys on his own – he'd killed before, no matter how much the Scouts might baby him now – but he wouldn't keep somebody a drugged captive. "I'd kill you before I let that happen to you."

 Levi regarded Eren seriously with his own eyes for a few seconds, then looked away, his spine relaxing. "Okay," he said. Eren felt like he'd passed some sort of test.

 "Breakfast?" he suggested hopefully. "You're not supposed to take the medicine on an empty stomach. I can bring it-"

 "God, no," Levi said. "If I eat here we'll have to change the sheets." Eren didn't point out that he was sleeping in Eren's bed, he hadn't changed the sheets since last week, and he might have possibly eaten in bed at some point. "I'll get up. But first, I gotta piss."

 ---

The odd thing was that even though they were the exact same height, Levi somehow felt a bit shorter than him. Maybe because of the awkward way he slumped and shuffled, forcing Eren to bend over to keep a good grip around his waist. Still, he thought as they made it to the bathroom and Levi fumbled with his pants, with Eren it was probably the least awkward because they had the same body-

He stared.

"Your dick is  _different_ ," he blurted. "What's wrong with it? Is something wrong with mine?" He nearly reached for his own fly to check but aborted at the sigh Levi huffed.

"I assume you're circumcised. Nothing's wrong with you  _or_ me. Now, do you mind?"

"Sorry." Eren looked away, and valiantly tried to resist the temptation to glance out of the corner of his eye. It looked so  _weird_ with the foreskin. He knew what uncircumcised cock looked like, he really did, and now felt kind of like an idiot. Still, he found himself blurting, "Is yours?"

"When you spontaneously turn into me, I'll make sure you find out."

"I was just thinking that it's probably weird for you," Eren mumbled in explanation.

"Not being able to use the bathroom in  _peace and quiet_ is also weird for me."

"Sorry." Eren zipped it and resolutely shifted his glance to the flowered tiles.

Still, though, it made him think. It was kind of weird, somebody else having his body, and, well, using it. Eating was one thing, but this sort of thing felt a lot more… personal. What if Levi felt uncomfortable about it? Or thought  _Eren_ was uncomfortable about it?

 "I don't mind if you want to use it," Eren reassured, as Levi stuffed himself awkwardly back into his pants. "Like, you know, jerk off or whatever-"

 "Eren," Levi said tightly, "can we never discuss your _painfully underage dick_ ever again?"

 "Oh, right." Eren gulped. "I forgot you're like twenty six."

 "Twenty four – _how did you know that_?" Levi shoved off with his shoulder, staggering away from Eren to lean against the opposite wall, eyes showing white all around.

  "I," Eren began, mind racing.

 "You _found me_ ," Levi said tightly, bright green eyes locked on Eren's. His hands were inching upward defensively, though Eren knew he wouldn't be able to fight, and Levi would know the same, if lucid.

 "Yeah," Eren found himself saying. "I came to your house, remember? Your name's Levi Smith, isn't it?" Praying Levi would accept it.

 "Levi… Smith," he repeated slowly, panic fading. "Yeah, that's right. That's… me."

 Only Eren knew that Levi's real name was Curse and-

 "I want to brush my teeth before breakfast," said Levi, trying to distract him. So Eren mutely got out a new toothbrush for him and thought, why had he lied? Wasn't the whole point of this that he _wasn't_ going to lie to Levi? The apology stuck in his throat while he watched Levi brush, spit, and wash out his mouth. He should confess, but the memory of Levi's panicked eyes stopped him.

 Who would want people they didn't trust knowing that sort of stuff about them? Levi probably wanted to forget it himself. It was better this way, he told himself. He helped Levi to the kitchen, and tried to settle his stomach.

 The pancakes were an ample distraction, however, and Levi was gratifyingly surprised to realize that Eren had made them all for him. His appetite was down because of the medications, but he still managed to finish off five or so, and enjoyed them too, with the way he was eyeing what was left of the stack. Then he must've caught sight of the pleased grin on Eren's lips, because he wiped his face clean of expression and set down his fork and knife.

 "Look, kid," he said. "I don't know what you're hoping for, but I'm not staying any longer than I have to. You don't want to kill me or hurt me or throw me in jail? Fine, though I don't think Captain Hamfist agrees with you on that. I'm your captive audience for three months, but the second my powers are back, I'm out of here. And this time I'll make sure you never find me – _what_ are you smirking about?"

 "Captain Hamfist", Eren choked. "Sorry, I was listening, just – _Captain Hamfist._ "

 "You've got a shitty sense of humor. It wasn't even that funny."

 "That's what Armin always says," Eren said, "he's a friend from school. I mean, he probably wouldn't use the word 'shitty', but same idea."

 "I have a staggering lack of interest in your friends from school. Help me back to bed."

 To Eren's disappointment, Levi wasn't particularly friendly after that. He lay flat on his back, his skin paler than it should be, closed his eyes, and didn't move much. Eren hovered around in case he needed something or wanted to talk, until Levi irritably told him to fuck off. Hurt, Eren wandered into the living room and staunchly resisted the temptation to keep playing _Gears of War_. Instead, he made sure to catch up on the readings for literature class, which reminded him of Levi's house and its shelves and shelves of books. Levi might not want company, and he seemed too tired to be interested in Eren's PSP right now, but maybe he wanted to read something?

 Eren tiptoed over to his room and inched the door open slowly, in case Levi was sleeping.

 "Just open the damn thing," Levi growled from the bed, so Eren swung the door open regardless of squeaky hinges.

 "I was trying to be quiet," he said.

 "I've been living alone for the past five years. I can hear you breathing from the other side of the house. What do you want?"

 Eren refused to be needled. He'd known Levi was a prickly sort; there was no surprise. "I thought maybe you wanted a book."

 "Oh." Levi swallowed whatever it was he'd been going to say and thought a moment. "Do you have any encyclopedias?"

 Eren shifted from foot to foot, not sure if he was supposed to laugh. "Um, really?"

 It was difficult for Levi to meet his eyes for a proper glare at this angle, but he managed. "Yes, really. You think I want to read your teenage angst garbage?"

 "If by 'teenage angst garbage' you mean that you're not interested in my gun manual compilations or anything then fine," Eren shot back in a rush of annoyance. Did Levi _have_ to be an asshole every moment of the day?

 Levi was quiet long enough that Eren thought he might apologize, but - "You can keep me captive here," he said tightly, staring at the ceiling. "You can do whatever you want to me. But if you think I'm going to fucking thank you for it-"

 "I saved your life," Eren protested. Of course it made sense that Levi saw him as his jailor, but Eren _wasn't_. He just wanted Levi to understand that he was trying to _help_ him.

 "Nobody asked you to!"

 "Was I supposed to just leave you to die?"

 "That's what _I_ would have done," Levi growled.

 "No, you wouldn't," Eren said. "When I showed up at your house, you tried to help me, even though you were wounded."

 "Come here where I can see you." Levi waited until Eren neared so he could meet his eyes, the expression on his face making him seem completely alien, even though the features were Eren's. "You've got some fantasy in your head that I'm a good person," he said quietly. "I'm not. I've done awful things. It's not that I want to die. But you're a hero, and you should want me to."

 Eren kept up a stubborn frown, so Levi was the first one forced to avert his eyes. He closed them, making Eren's face appear old and tired.

 "I'll hurt you," Levi said. "I'll ruin your life."

 The words weren't a threat, nor even a promise, Eren thought, and all they evoked in him was a kind of pity. Of course, what else could somebody called Curse possibly believe?

 "I don't think you will," Eren said, even though Levi was trying very hard not to listen.

 He left, then, but returned quietly a few minutes later, with both a gun manual and a volume of the encyclopedia. Levi pretended he was asleep, and Eren let him.

 ---

That was why, when Mikasa and Armin showed up after school with his homework, Eren decided it wasn't the right time to introduce them to Levi. Not yet.

 "Sorry we're late," Armin said. "Mikasa had kickboxing and wouldn't let me come without her."

 Mikasa shrugged, as if to imply that she had no part in Armin's decision. Eren sighed as he ushered them into the living room.

 "We're out here, today," he said. "My room's taken." Mikasa frowned at that, shooting the room a sharp look as if she could see through the door. She couldn't, actually. Mikasa didn't have any superpowers at all, even though most of the school was convinced she did. The guidance counselor had even called her in once for an extremely awkward conversation about being a teenage superhero without the counselor actually accusing her of being one. Mikasa had dutifully remembered all the points she brought up and repeated them to Eren later, and Eren mostly ignored every single one.

 A few times, Eren had actually considered just asking Mikasa to join, because between her karate and kickboxing and the training sessions with Eren she could totally hold her own in a fight, she definitely had the dramatic aura down pat, and the tragic backstory to polish it off. Even though she didn't have much of a vendetta, because she and Eren had killed the robbers who murdered her parents back when they were both kids. Already proof she had her shit together better than a lot of heroes who were still mucking around with that stuff years later.

 "What's going on?" Mikasa asked. "You’ve been running off after school, and now you skipped a day."

 "I've been listening to the police scanner, but I haven't heard of anything major," Armin added. "I figure the world's not in danger."

 Armin had actually figured out on his own that Eren was Titan, and now, along with Mikasa, helped cover for him when necessary. The fact that Armin came from a perfectly normal family and had excellent grades probably helped with his credibility.

 Eren quickly gave them a run-down of the past few days, and for some reason, their expressions didn't reflect how great of a victory having Levi _in his bedroom_ actually was.

 " _Levi_?" Armin asked, exchanging a worried look with Mikasa. " _The_ Levi? The one who stole two nuclear warheads six months ago and sold them on the black market?"

 "Yeah," Eren said. "But he's not a bad guy!"

 "Didn't he sell a whole shipment of automatic rifles to some country in Africa?" Mikasa added. "And he's a _shapeshifter_? And he's _in your room?_ "

 "He hasn't even _done_ anything yet!"

 "He's done a _lot_ ," Armin replied seriously. "He's not the worst guy around – I can't believe I'm saying this, but when we've got guys trying to destroy the world and stuff Levi's not much more than a small-time criminal, but him being a shifter puts another spin on things."

 "Why are you being like this?" Eren complained. If Levi was that bad, Commander wouldn't have come up with this plan in the first place. Petra wouldn't let him into the house. "I thought you guys would _help_ me show him that being good is worth it."

 That had come out louder than he'd expected, and Eren glanced nervously towards his bedroom door. If Levi was awake he might have heard all that, but then, Eren didn't have anything to hide on that front. It was pretty clear that they were trying to reform him.

 "He's been here one day and he's already turning you against us," Mikasa said darkly.

 "He hasn't said a single thing about you! He hardly talks! He mostly just tells me to leave him alone!"

 "Hey, hey," Armin said, grabbing Mikasa's arm to calm her and leaning towards Eren. "What Mikasa means is that you're already so protective of him and he's not even trying – what if he does try? Just remember who your friends are, okay Eren?"

 "I would never turn on you," Eren snapped, hurt.

 "Of course he wouldn't," Mikasa said, calmer now. Mikasa was crazy protective, and Eren sometimes found it difficult to follow her changes of mind. "But if that asshole tries anything, I'll tear him a new one. Shifter or not."

 "You can't tell anybody he's a shifter, though," Eren cautioned, getting serious, if slightly reluctant nods from both of them in reply. He was weirdly relieved that the conversation was taking a calmer turn. All that talk about how awful a person Levi was made him uncomfortable, because if Levi was that bad, how could they fix him? But if he wasn't, why would he do those things?

 "Just, be careful," Armin said. "It's not that I don't think you should be a superhero, but don't let it take over your life. You're trying to rehabilitate a supervillain _in your room_ , Eren, it doesn't get much more personal than that. There's a reason superheroes keep secret identities."

 Eren's first impulse was to deny, and if it had been Commander or Petra or anybody he probably would have. But Armin was his friend, and he understood. "I won't let him take over my life," he said.

 "Maybe that's his plan," Mikasa suggested. "He looks like you, he lives in your house. He can learn everything about you and then when the time is right he'll get rid of you and take your place."

 Even Armin rolled his eyes at that one.

 Later, when he went in to help change Levi's bandages, Levi looked like he wanted to say something, but sighed in defeat and closed his mouth. He wouldn't meet Eren's eyes, and when he lay back down he definitely wasn't feigning the pain or exhaustion.

 "Mikasa and Armin say hi," Eren ventured.

 "Your friends hate my guts and would like to see me dead," Levi said tiredly.

Eren left it at that, for now.

\---

Petra came home around five and promptly began fussing at everybody. Had Eren done his homework? How was Levi feeling? Did he have any dinner preferences? Levi clammed up and just watched her, probably stunned into silence by how excited Petra could get. He didn't even voice a preference when Petra suggested cutting his hair to look like Eren's in case somebody saw him.

Post haircut, Levi would have looked almost like a carbon-copy of Eren if not for the flat expression on his face. Everything about Levi drooped – his shoulders, his eyes, and between that and the pale cast of his skin he just looked sad.

That night, Levi hardly slept. Eren lay in bed, dozing off, but could tell from the way Levi was breathing that he was still awake. He woke up once or twice during the night, and each time Levi's too-quick breathing was clearly audible. Only when he got up the next morning for school did he see that Levi had fallen asleep at some point, probably from sheer exhaustion. He didn't even move as Eren puttered around the room (quietly!) getting ready for school.

He left a note by Levi's bed, along with his pills and a cup of water.

"Still out?" Petra asked as she put together sandwiches.

"Yeah," Eren said around a mouthful of cereal. "He didn't sleep much, either."

"He's probably not used to the bed." She tossed the small plastic bag of his sandwiches at him. "I messaged Auruo today about coming over sometime this week. If Commander's serious about getting Levi to join, we should probably all try to get to know each other."

\---

Levi perked up enough to leave his bed that evening. Eren wouldn't have taken much notice of it, but he heard soft voices coming from the kitchen. It wasn't that he didn't trust Levi around Petra, but he just… wanted to check. Tiptoeing carefully he sidled up to the door and peeked in.

 Petra was making stir-fry with noodles and had Levi sitting at the kitchen table chopping vegetables. He was only half-focused on chopping but even so his slices were far more symmetrical than Eren ever could make them, and had a slightly bemused air about him, like he had no idea how he'd gotten into this situation.

 From the snippets of conversation, he and Petra appeared to be discussing cooking.

 "I feel like I never have enough time to cook," Petra said. "Though Eren probably wouldn't mind having pizza every day."

 "I cook," Levi said. "Most days I don't have much to do, so I might as well."

 "Makes sense, though isn't it lonely cooking for one?"

 "No. And I like being alone."

 "If you say so! Here, what do you think?" Petra speared a mushroom and held it to Levi's mouth whose eyes flickered in a panic between her and the mushroom. He opened his mouth, probably to object, and Petra popped the fork in. Levi made a noise of protest but didn't have much choice about chewing and swallowing.

 "Good," he said, but he sounded completely distracted, and his wide eyes were fixed on Petra as if he'd never really seen her before.

 Eren backed away. It was better not to get caught eavesdropping, and for some reason he didn't like the scene. Didn't like how easily Petra mothered Levi the same way she would Eren, and didn't like how Levi was looking at her. It left a slightly sour taste in the back of his throat, and he didn't know why.

This was what they wanted, wasn't it? Levi connecting to them? Eren was just being stupid.

\---

Despite being completely sure that Levi was a good guy and wouldn't hurt him, Eren didn't actually sleep very well in the same room with him. He dreamed, sometimes, that Levi tried to kill him, that he opened his eyes and saw his own face smirking evilly back at him above a knife in his chest. He dreamed once that Levi turned into a giant and ate Petra, grinning with the deranged, mindless glee that Eren had seen on the faces of transformed people. His mother's broken body flashed before his eyes and he jerked awake in a cold sweat.

 "You okay, kid?" a voice came in the darkness and Eren's heart practically jumped out through his mouth before he remembered that it was Levi, and this normal Levi was definitely an okay guy and wouldn't be attacking him any time soon.

 "Don't you ever sleep?" Eren returned. Levi went quiet.

 "Your breathing is loud," he said after a few seconds. "I told you, I'm not used to being around people, and it's worse in the dark. Imagine trying to sleep with Darth Vader breathing in your ear. It's like that."

 Eren snorted. "I do _not_ breathe that loudly."

 "I was giving an example for demonstration purposes," Levi growled. "Don't be an idiot."

 The darkness felt warmer somehow, as the dreams faded back into his subconscious. "You know what they did to my mom?"

 "I bet I'm about to find out."

 "You're not," Eren said sulkily. "Forget it." He glowered up into the darkness.

 "Hey," Levi said quietly after an eternity of silence. "It's not… you shouldn't give people ammunition to use against you. Being in a lab is something most people can't understand. You can try to explain a thousand times but they'll never know what it's like to be a helpless lab rat."

 "The Scouts understand me," Eren said staunchly.

 "No." Levi's tone brooked no argument. "They _try_. Nobody can understand. One day they'll see that inside you're not who they think you are and they'll turn away. They'll get scared when they realize you're really the monster the lab wanted you to be all along."

 Eren opened his mouth ready to retort with a thousand arguments, furious that Levi dared say that about _Petra_ , about the rest of the Scouts – when he wondered if Levi was talking about him at all.

 "If you believe that, you're letting them win," Eren replied fiercely. "You can be whoever you want to be!"

 "God, you watch too much TV," Levi groaned. Eren was thankful the darkness hid his sheepish smile.

 "So do you," he said, remembering the empty house with its miles of books and entertainment that didn't depend on meeting other people.

 "Not TV so much," Levi admitted grudgingly, "but touché."

 "What do you do with all the money?" Eren asked before he could stop himself. "I thought you'd be living in a castle or something."

 Levi swallowed thickly in the darkness. "I do what I can."

"That's not an answer."

"It's all you're getting," Levi said. His tone had gone flat and cold. Obviously the money issue was something delicate. "You should sleep, you've got school tomorrow."

"Don't you mother me  _too_ ," Eren groaned. "You're supposed to be a copy of me, not Petra!"

And there, he wasn't imagining it – a snort of what might have been laughter from Levi's side of the room. Eren grinned up at the ceiling, a small flush of success warming his chest. Levi wasn't nearly so cold as he tried to seem. Maybe Commander's crazy plan had some chance of actual success.

\---

 Auruo did come that week, and he brought with him a huge bag of groceries.

 "Auruo!" Petra scolded. "We aren't destitute!"

 "You're feeding three people in this house, and I only have to feed one. And Levi's not your responsibility anyway, you shouldn't have to shoulder the cost."

 With only slight reluctance she accepted the bag, already eyeing its contents. "Commander's entire house got trashed, according to Bloodhound, and I don't see you giving him handouts."

 "Commander has Bloodhound to nag him, I don't see why I have to."

 "You don't know where his house is, anyway." Petra retorted. "Oooh, you got some pumpkin! I love pumpkin."

 From Auruo's slight smile, he'd remembered very well how much Petra liked it.

 "How's the invalid?"

 "Ask Eren, he's the one who sees him all the time. Baked pumpkin for dinner it is!"

 Auruo sighed and turned his attention to Eren, as Petra was more concerned with food at the moment.

 "He's in my room, you can go talk to him," Eren said, looking up from where he was doing homework on the kitchen table. Levi seemed so uncomfortable when other people were around that he didn't want to bother him more than necessary.

 Maybe springing Auruo on Levi like that wasn't a good idea… Eren quickly dropped his pencil and followed, in time to hear their exchange.

 "Hey!" Levi said, uncharacteristically animated. "You could knock, you know! I was trying to sleep."

 "Don't be so prickly, geez, I was just checking up on you."

 "I'm fine," he sounded baffled, now. "Did something happen?"

 "You faking it or what?" Auruo retorted.

 "I dunno what –"

 Eren rounded the corner then, to see Levi sitting up in bed, looking much more alive than usual. The characteristic sourness was gone from his face, his expression open and confused, looking – kind of like Eren, actually. Then Levi caught sight of Eren and he scowled and dropped the act, his features almost rearranging themselves and shoulders slumping, and the startling similarity to Eren vanished.

_Taking your place_ , Eren thought with a sudden chill.

"The fuck is this clown?" Levi groused. "Why are you dumping surprises on me? I thought he was the fucking social worker or something."

"You met me at the hospital," Auruo said.

"I remember a bunch of loons in spandex, was I supposed to recognize you?"

Eren listened to them sniping at each other, though with each round Levi reacted slower. His mind was humming around the fact that Levi had apparently been trying to protect him, again, no matter what he said to the contrary.

The form this protection had taken, though… Of course it made sense that Levi would pretend to be Eren. He'd kind of assumed that might have to happen at some point, but he hadn't taken into account just how creepy it was.

Levi had only been here a few days, and he'd already observed Eren enough to mimic him this much. What could he do given more time? Would he ever be able to fool the other Scouts, if he wanted to? Could he fool Mikasa and Armin?

Eren backed away, leaving an increasingly tired Levi to his sniping with Auruo, though he knew he should probably break them up. He just needed to back away for a few minutes and be somewhere he didn't have to look at Levi.

He knew Levi wasn't a bad guy, was totally sure of it, but… Annie had been good once, too. So had Bertholdt and Reiner. Scared people made bad decisions, Eren knew, and what if for Levi this was enough to push him over the edge? Three months was a long time. It was one thing now when he was bedridden, but what would they do later? Would Levi go back to his own home? Would he do what he said, and just vanish?

Would he try to kill the witnesses, thinking there was no way out? Once he could shift again, it wasn't just Eren that he'd know how to mimic – it was all of them. And while he couldn't duplicate their abilities, none of them would be expecting a sneak attack from each other-

Eren shook his head furiously to get rid of those thoughts. He believed in Levi, who had twice now tried to protect him. He had to.

Still… he found it hard to fall asleep that night, and when he finally did, he dreamed he was chasing after Petra, who was walking beside Levi and laughing. When they entered the house she locked the door in Eren's face, and wouldn't open it no matter how hard he banged. Rage flooding him, Eren bit his hand and jerked awake in bed, panting.

From the other side of the room he could hear breathing, too rapid to be asleep.

 "Levi?" he whispered. "Are you awake?"

 There was a long silence, though to be fair Eren hadn't really expected Levi not to ignore him.

 "No," Levi whispered back. "Shut the fuck up."

 ---

In the light of day, between arguing with Jean at school and dragging Mikasa to the soccer field at recess to trounce one of the other classes, the fears seemed rather silly. Levi would never be able to fool Mikasa, he thought, and Armin was sharp. They'd definitely know if something happened to Eren. And why would Levi want to replace him? It was stupid, that's what. He didn't have anything Levi would want-

 -except friends, and a family, and a team he could trust, assuming Levi wanted those things.

 But in that case, the solution was showing Levi that if he wanted friends he could have them as _himself_. He didn't need to be Eren for that to happen.

 With that thought firmly in mind Eren decided to chivvy Levi into the living room and a friendly game of something when he got home from school. Levi was surprisingly compliant, apparently bored out of his mind even though he had a small stack of books by his bed.

 So Eren helped him over to the sofas across from the large television and then made several trips back and forth bringing blankets and pillows until Levi was satisfied. The next problem: what to play.

 Eren immediately pulled out the latest Mortal Kombat.

 "Not that."

 "Huh?" Eren looked up to see Levi frowning at him. "Why not? It's great for two. It'll be fun."

 "I don't want to play it, okay?"

 "Fine, fine…" He set Mortal Kombat down and reached for something else. "How about Guilty Gear?"

 "No. I don't like fighting games, don't you have anything else?"

 "Huh? Why?" slipped out before Eren could consider why this wasn't the best question to ask.

 "Stupid bloody minded kid," Levi snapped. "Isn't fighting in real life enough for you?"

 Eren cocked his head. "No?" he ventured. "It's not the same. This is fun, and nobody dies. It's not realistic, either, I mean half the stuff they do is impossible without superpowers, and not in the fireball-throwing sense, more like bodies don't work that way." He knew he was rambling, but at least Levi looked less… dark, now, and was going back to his default of looking as if the world was too stupid for words. "And the costumes and weapons are funny, too, even superheroes don't dress like that."

 "You wear spandex."

 "That's only us cheap ones," Eren said. "Most everybody has reinforced fibers. I'm saving up for my own suit."

 "Huh, that explains it," Levi said cryptically, but didn't expand. Eren went back to scanning his collection.

 "Mario Kart!" he crowed. "Wanna play that?" At Levi's nod he tossed him a controller and loaded the game.

 "Ready to lose?" Eren needled.

 "Bring it, kid," Levi replied, eyes glued to the screen and the controller easy in his hands.

 Levi won.

 "Were you even trying?" Levi asked archly as they headed for the next level.

 "I'm getting warmed up," Eren grumbled, and then proceeded to lose steadily for the next hour and a half. Levi threw one game just to mock him, which led to Eren throwing a pillow at him and getting one of Levi's in his face.

 "Not all of us can spend all day playing video games," Eren complained at him.

 "Jealous?" Levi replied, leaning back on the couch and looking far more relaxed than he had earlier. "Though, really. I tried to go easy on you-"

 "You totally didn't. I saw your face, you liar."

 "I'm sorry you feel that way."

 "You're a terrible winner."

 "You'd be no better."

 Maybe Eren wouldn't, but– He opened his mouth to protest and got a look at Levi's face, oddly open and cheerful, looking more like a mirror than he should. "Quit making that face, it's not funny," he said, managing to keep himself from snapping.

 The expression dropped off Levi's face in a flash. "What face?"

 Eren rolled his eyes in annoyance. Like he was going to fall for the innocent act, and he wouldn't have answered but Levi grabbed his sleeve and practically shook his arm. Eren noticed absently how weak his grip was and reminded himself that Levi wasn't a threat right now.

"That one you make when you're trying to look like me, don't do it. It was one thing with Auruo, but it gives me the creeps."

"Oh." The word fell flat between them, and Eren suddenly thought that it probably sounded ungrateful, since Levi'd tried to protect him then.

"I mean," Eren hurried to add, but Levi overrode him. The quality of his voice was different now from how it'd been during the game, too.

"Sorry." Levi wouldn't meet his eyes, staring off stonily into the distance. "Excuse me for having your face. I'll go back to the room so you don't have to look at me anymore."

This was all wrong. "That's not what I meant," Eren said and watched helplessly as Levi picked himself up and began trying to untangle from the blankets. "Let me help you-"

"No!" Levi shoved at his reaching hands with what strength as he could muster, which wasn't much, but Eren let him. "Just stay away from me, how many times to I have to tell you? Are you stupid? How difficult is it to just live your fucking life and leave me to mine?"

"Fine!" Eren snapped. "Do whatever you want!" Deliberately he turned back to the television, picked up his controller, and started a game against the computer. He refused to look, even when Levi stumbled and struggled to drag his blanket back to bed, clearly in pain. He didn't look when Levi came back a second time to take the pillows.

Finally, Levi vanished into the room and didn't come out again. Eren did his homework in the living room, though he couldn't help shooting glances towards the hallway, wondering if he should go and talk to him.

But he didn't go, and Levi didn't come out until dinner.

 ---

Petra immediately noticed that something was wrong. Probably because, as she said at dinner, "So Eren's sulking and Levi looks like a little stormcloud. What happened today?"

"I'm not sulking," Eren said, and chased peas diligently around his plate. From the corner of his eye he saw that Levi had separated the peas, carrots, and mashed potatoes into separate piles, none touching the other, before proceeding to carefully spear a piece of cooked carrot on his fork. He didn't answer Petra at all.

Petra sighed. "I'm sure whatever it was was just a misunderstanding," she said with forced cheer. "Levi, how do you feel?"

Levi set down his fork and looked at her, pointedly avoiding Eren's eyes. "I should leave."

Eren's stomach plummeted to somewhere around his feet. He knew Levi had gotten angry at him, but he had no idea _why_. He found himself on his feet. "It was just a stupid game!" he burst out. "And you _won_!"

For the first time in what felt like hours Levi looked directly at Eren, and though he'd kind of gotten used to Levi looking like him-but-not, he was struck again with the weird feeling of seeing something that wasn't him behind his own eyes.

"I'm sure Eren didn't mean whatever he said," Petra said anxiously. "He's a teenager, he mostly doesn't think before he talks – though part of that is just _him_ , you know-"

"It's not that," Levi said. He looked conflicted for a moment, played with his fork and pushed his food into even neater piles. Then he set the fork down again and straightened his back, set his jaw.  "Eren said I was acting like him. See, usually when I transform into something organic my brain mostly stays the same. It's why rocks and stuff are hard to maintain for too long – my thinking slows down. Thinking as a rock or as a piece of metal is… weird. Since I got Eren's blood, I transformed into a complete duplicate of his. That means I'm using Eren's brain, too, instead of my own. I don't know what that's going to do to me." He delivered the entire speech coolly, but his eyes were just a bit wild. "Like Eren said, it's only been a few days, and I'm already influenced by him. If I stay here longer, if I forget who I am," he paused, swallowed thickly, "how will I ever turn back?"

Eren flopped back into his chair with a thump, heart thudding in his chest. Levi hadn't been doing it on purpose? "But with Auruo-"

"I was trying then, but dammit kid, I'm not that good of an actor. You should have seen his face – he nearly bought it, for a second. That's not normal. I've barely known you for a fucking week." Levi took a deep breath and looked back at Petra. "So you see, I gotta- Fuck. I have to get out of here."

"Levi. Calm down." Petra set down her silverware and fixed him with a stern glance. "So you're a teenager now, you've got teenage hormones and Eren's brain. Stop panicking and give me the worst case scenario. Obviously you can't materialize Eren's memories, so you can't totally become him."

Somehow, it worked. Levi took a breath and got control of himself. "Worst case is I stop being me, and you get to find out what Eren would be like if he grew up like me. Or something like that."

Eren shuddered. Watching Levi mimic him was bad enough, but imagining Levi forced to _become_ him… and all because Eren gave his blood… Eren might have killed before, but he'd never done something like this. He'd never forced somebody to wait and watch as their personality was slowly erased. "I'm sorry," he managed. "I didn't know – if I'd known –"

"Would you have let me die?" Levi sounded genuinely curious, voice odd and slightly flat, and he fixed Eren with his own intense green eyes.

Would he have let Levi die if he'd known this would happen? But, did they know for  _sure_ that it was going to? Eren considered his answer carefully, as if it were a test. Maybe it was. He thought about being himself but not, and wondered who that would make him. People changed naturally over time, of course, and he wasn't the same as he was ten years ago, but still… if somebody else's personality got transplanted into his brain, Eren Yeager wouldn't exist anymore. "Isn't it kind of like dying anyway?"

"Oh for goodness' sake!" Petra burst in, making everybody flinch. "Die this, die that, get a grip, boys! Levi, act your age! Eren, stop being a drama queen! Levi's solution is a good one. Let's get him out of the house a bit and not spending so much time with Eren and see what happens. Obviously you're enjoying planning a grand funeral for Levi's charming personality, but you guys are seriously jumping the shark here. You're pole-vaulting the damn shark! Now eat your dinner before it gets any colder!"

A bit sheepish, Eren moved to do as he was told, but Levi frowned at her, not yet mollified, reminding Eren that Levi wasn't a kid, no matter what he might look like.

"What's your solution, then? Will you let me go home, finally?"

"Stop acting like a misunderstood innocent," Petra said in a sudden shift of mood, gesturing dangerously with her fork. "When you attacked Commander you lost the right to freedom. We're vigilantes. We don't do law, here – we do justice, and that means people like you don't get to be out on the streets. But I can tell you that this is way cushier than a jail cell. So stop whining!" A curl of fire licked from her outflung fingertips in emphasis. Levi stared at her, pale and thin-lipped.

"Understood," he said. It was evidently meant to come out crisp, but it sounded hollow to Eren's ears. Petra's anger softened immediately and she bit her lip, but Levi didn't see, because he wouldn't look up.

When told he would be going to stay with Commander, Levi just nodded.

 ---

It was funny how they kept having conversations at night in the dark, Eren thought, but maybe it made sense. In the dark, he didn't have to look at Levi's face and think about how much like himself he looked. His voice didn't sound much like Eren's to his ears, so he could imagine that Levi looked like himself and not like Eren, recall the short, pale man he'd met in that sterile house.

With the room lit only by streetlights from the windows everything felt a bit surreal, as if nothing they said was as real as words spoken in the light of day. As if things they said might remain hidden in the dark, with no consequences to hound them later. So it didn't surprise Eren when Levi's quiet voice spoke out of the blackness, and he might have been waiting for it.

"Don't fret," Levi said. "I don't even know what it means, having my personality changed. It's not like I can feel it happening. I guess it doesn't really matter, if you think about it like that."

Eren waited to answer, took a deep breath to make sure his voice would hold steady when he replied. "Why are you lying to make me feel better?"

"Not everything is fucking about you," Levi said tightly. "Thanks for helping me work up some denial here."

"Sorry," Eren gulped. "I just… I can't okay? I can't say it doesn't matter." It made him sick to his stomach, just thinking about it. Because… if Levi turning into somebody else didn't matter, it meant that  _Levi_ as a unique human being didn't matter. And if Levi's existence was worthless, wasn't all of theirs? Weren't they all just as easily replaceable?

"Nobody's even going to miss me," Levi said.

"I will," Eren said.

A soft groan reached Eren's ears in the darkness. " _Seriously_ ?"

Eren glared at the dark ceiling. "It was a stupid thing to say. What else did you expect me to reply?"

"It's true, though," Levi insisted. "I don't have any friends. I don't have – family."

Eren didn't miss the slight hesitation before the last word, but he didn't comment on it.

"It doesn't matter," Eren said hotly. "You don't exist so that people will miss you when you're gone. You exist in order to do something in the world. If you stop being you, then no matter what something's going to be missing."

"I don't think it'll be a great loss," Levi replied. "Remember the part where I'm a supervillain?"

"It's hard to forget. You mention it like every five minutes."

Levi fell silent again, and Eren searched desperately for something to say. Levi was leaving tomorrow and Eren had so many issues he didn't know how to solve. He was no longer afraid of Levi taking his place because he felt too sorry for Levi to be angry about it, but there were so many other things. Levi had been here a week and while Eren was fond of Levi and wanted to play more games with him, maybe train with him, maybe go on missions with him – he couldn't evade the spectre of Levi's past and the awful things he kept talking about having done. So who was Levi? Was he the dry, sarcastic, miserable guy sharing a room with Eren? Or was he the supervillain who sold guns to African countries?

Eren wanted to believe it was the former, wanted desperately for Levi to understand that he was good and good people didn't do stuff like that, to make him turn away from his past and never look back, and he'd only had a week to try and make it happen.  A week was nothing. Commander was right; Levi had a soft spot for Eren, but now Eren wouldn't be able to see him anymore.

There had to be something else he could say, something…

"Look at the bright side," he told the darkness, and wished he could see Levi's face. "When you were out, at first they were going to have Auruo match his blood to yours."

Levi let out an odd strangled sound, and a grin split Eren's face from ear to ear. He'd made Levi laugh.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hoo okay, sorry this took so long - but you'll notice it's about 11k (which is probably 5k more than I expected it to be). I knew what had to happen this chapter, I just didn't expect the writing to take so long.  
> I hope you'll enjoy anyway :)  
> Lots of stuff yet to happen, but I'm pretty sure we're past halfway! Thanks (as always) to everybody reading, commenting, encouraging... you guys keep me writing :'D

There was a lot of preparation to do before Levi could become his housemate. Patching up the place so Erwin himself could live in it again was both time-consuming and expensive, and the results of a week's worth of it was enough to make it look less like a disaster zone but not yet decent. Damaged furniture could be replaced, but the structural damage to the walls and floor would need much more specialized work, and Erwin didn’t have time for that right now. This would probably have one of two effects on Levi: either soften him up with guilt or make him defensive and uncooperative. Erwin hoped for the former.

He stocked up on food and made sure to set up the television room comfortably. He cleared some closet space so Levi could keep his things there, put clean sheets on the bed that doubled as a TV watching couch and transferred a few more pillows in. He brought some books over from the living room and set them up on the small table at one end of the bed, then surveyed the room. The curtains were currently missing as Erwin had decided to wash them, allowing sunlight to wash the room in gold from the southern window. The round rug was a mutedly cheerful solid pale blue that matched the darker blue of the sofa and the windowframes. Erwin hoped Levi liked blue.

There was something kind of pathetic about the situation. First time Erwin was having somebody come and live with him and it was a supervillain out for his blood. Still, if he had a partner this whole situation would probably be even _more_ awkward, so it was better like this.

He wondered what kind of roommate Levi would be.

Out of all his preparations, the most important by far was coffee with Wildfire, who updated him on Levi's status.

She started off by guzzling coffee like she hadn't seen it in months, her fire powers protecting her from being burned by the heat of the liquid. Erwin let her drink in silence for a few moments, knowing she'd get to the point. Half a cup down and Wildfire set it aside with a hefty sigh.

"I needed that," she said. "Between work and home, I'm going crazy."

"Levi's being difficult," Erwin said, though his intonation left room for contradiction.

"Not… difficult, exactly. I don't know if he's doing it on purpose. But he pushes. Every time he opens his mouth, he's pushing. I get kids like that sometimes, you know? They test the boundaries, and if you can show them where it's safe, they feel better. At least, that's the idea." She made an abortive gesture with her hand, reaching to play with hair by her ear that wasn't there, but tied up in a high red ponytail. Erwin long suspected that her hair was actually shorter than she presented when she was in costume, but took no steps to prove or disprove the theory. It was kind of pathetic how easily they could find each other out if they put their minds to it, making him wonder sometimes if there was any real point in keeping their identities secret from each other. But it was traditional, so they kept at it.

"I think that's what he was trying to do with me," Erwin offered. "The pushing, I mean."

Wildfire nodded and gulped some more coffee. Erwin was going to have to order her another one. "It's an expression of insecurity, but worse, it's a self-destructive mechanism. He's sure how we'll react, right? So he pushes and pushes trying to prove it true, and then when we break down, he tells himself it was inevitable. The only way to win is to make him stop…" Wildfire trailed off and shook her head. "I'll be honest, Commander, if he was ten years younger I'd say we have a chance."

Erwin felt a flash of disappointment. "You don't think we have one now?"

"The guy's twenty-four," Wildfire sighed. "Who knows how many years he's been doing this? Every time it works it just reinforces the cycle."

"What does Eren think?"

Wildfire groaned. She picked up her cup and frowned in disappointment to find it empty, so Erwin ordered her another one. "Eren acts like any question about Levi will be used against him during a trial. Levi's managed to push every single button he has and then some. Eren's in full-out rescue mode." She took a grateful sip of her new coffee and looked down at her reflection in it. "I'm worried," she confessed. "If Levi goes bad I don't know what it'll do to him."

Erwin mulled over this information. "Should we keep them apart, then? Give Eren time to cool down?"

"No," Wildfire replied immediately, and Erwin was on the verge of asking her how biased she was, but she continued. "If Levi realized, it would effectively undo everything we're trying to do. We can't say we trust him around Eren and then not. And if Eren realized he'd get angry and that's counter-productive. They'll be in less contact from now on anyway. That'll have to be enough."

The thought of Levi dragging Eren down with him was enough to sober Erwin. He hadn't thought of this plan as a two-way street. The affinity between Eren and Levi had seemed positive, and Eren was so very… steadfast in his views of Right and Wrong that Erwin hadn't considered the possibility of him being compromised. The thought of Eren becoming a villain was ludicrous, so what would he _do?_

Erwin's mind offered a few suggestions, none of them pretty.

"This isn't such a big deal," Wildfire piped up again, "but I think Carnage might be a bit jealous."

"What? Of what?"

"Ah," Wildfire looked a bit uncertain, and gave a small nervous laugh. "Levi's so much more _powerful_ than us, you know? I mean, I don't mind, fighting with him would probably be fun. But he's really strong."

"That's ridiculous," Erwin snapped. "Carnage is an adult, he'll have to get over it. We don't play power games! This isn't a competition!"

"Shh!" Wildfire flapped her hands at him urgently to lower his voice. Erwin complied, annoyed to have lost control. As it was two costumed superheroes in a coffeeshop was drawing attention, he didn't need to make it worse by shouting.

"I'm just _saying_ ," Wildfire sighed. "You're so touchy."

"Ridiculous," Erwin repeated.

Because superheroes tended to be trouble magnets, the two of them were forced to deal with a traffic accident upon leaving, which dragged the whole thing out another half an hour when Erwin would really have preferred to be alone to think things over. In the end he and Wildfire decided to have him take Levi now instead of in the evening, since the afternoon was mostly shot anyway. It was a sound decision, quite logical, but it meant that now Erwin was standing by his car, mind buzzing with the effects of the conversation with Petra and his blood still hot with the annoyance at the complete asininity of power-grade jealousy. Probably not the best frame of mind to be greeting Levi in.

Levi was guaranteed to try and piss him off, so he'd better start working on being calm.

The first moment when Wildfire's car pulled over and the door opened on one Eren helping another Eren out had Erwin momentarily disoriented. He remembered, of course, that Levi was Eren's copy, but somehow he'd still expected him to look like the dark shadow that had haunted his house for three days.

"-and make sure you get help changing the bandages," Eren was admonishing. "When you do it yourself you don't always get the back right."

"Shut your goddamn trap," Levi growled. "You're worse than p-Wildfire. I'll get the lunk to change my bandages, okay?"

Wildfire was walking beside them, carrying a duffel bag. "I packed Eren's gray hoodie for you," she said. "Since you seemed to like it so much. If you need any more of Eren's clothes let us know, you hear? You shouldn't lounge around in the same clothes all the time, either-"

"Gross," Levi said, clearly wishing he could walk away but wasn't up to rushing yet. "Of course I do laundry, what kind of animal do you think I am?"

"Hem!" Wildfire said pointedly to Eren, who flushed.

Amazing, Erwin thought. Despite Petra's grim predictions, Levi was acting extremely normal. Maybe part of it was because of the influence of Eren's personality, but Erwin was inclined to think there was more to it. So Erwin prepared his best welcoming expression when they got within speaking distance, but didn't miss how the openness dropped sharply off Levi's face at the sight of him.

True, it was kind of hard to see exactly what face he was making, because while the Scouts were in uniform to protect their identities, they had Levi in a hood pulled up over his hair, and sunglasses. Still, Erwin could see that his jaw was set and his lips thinned, but between the hoodie and Eren's youth, he just looked like a sulky teenager.

No, Erwin admonished himself. He couldn't forget that no matter what he looked like, Levi was a threat.

"Ready to go?" Erwin asked.

Levi straightened with a wince and shook off Eren's support. "Yeah."

The duffel, when Erwin took it from Petra, weighed nothing to him, and he stood ready to assist Levi, who seemed determined to make it to the car without assistance. He only paused once to look back and opened his mouth as if to speak, then gave a sort of sheepish shrug and didn't say anything, but Eren brightened visibly.

Erwin waved goodbye to the two of them, and received a very serious look from Eren in reply. Unsettled, Erwin turned back to Levi and paced him to the car, wondering how he'd managed to buy so much of Eren's loyalty in such a short time when Erwin had been working at him for ages and Eren still chafed against him.

Levi got settled in the car, slumped slightly in what Erwin decided was exhaustion rather than just sullenness, and stared out the window blankly. Erwin endured several minutes of the oppressive silence and focused on driving before he decided to try and see just how unpleasant Levi was intending to be.

"So how was it at Wildfire's?" he asked. "I've never been there."

Levi glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and went back to watching downtown go by. Well, could have been worse.

They pulled into Erwin's parking lot with no more words exchanged between them. Levi still wouldn't accept any assistance walking to the front door, so Erwin just carried the bag and watched to make sure he didn't collapse along the way.

"Welcome back," he said, having decided that pretending Levi's short sojourn of horror hadn't happened would be stupid. "It's still kind of a mess. I haven't gotten around to fixing everything."

Even though he knew he shouldn't, he still felt a bit self-conscious about the gouges in the wall and the fact that the sofas were patched up with packing tape. He'd replaced his bed, though, and the carpet, but decided that if he had to get new sofas he might as well look for something he liked.

Practically the first thing Levi did upon entering was toss the hood back and take off the sunglasses, then he surveyed the living room and turned to Erwin. The similarity to Eren was just a bit startling.

"I'll pay for it," Levi said.

"That's not necessary," Erwin replied immediately, though his mind was already cataloguing the fact that Levi felt enough sense of responsibility to offer and that was a good thing.

Levi gave a short, cold chuckle in reply. "Oh, right. Of course you'd be too good for my blood money."

Erwin hadn’t thought of it at all, though maybe he should have. But should he protest? Was it worth protesting? What reply did Levi want to hear? And honestly, would Erwin feel comfortable owning a sofa that had been financed by arms smuggling? These thoughts took barely a second, but it was enough that replying would be kind of awkward, so Erwin didn't say anything. He cleared his throat.

"Your room's this way," he said, and tried to gauge Levi's mood shift from earlier, if any. He seemed marginally glummer, but that was about it.

"Oh, it's the one I didn't trash," Levi said.

"Please keep it that way, if you don't mind," Erwin said. "I don't want to have to redecorate here, too."

Levi grunted and trudged over to the bed, pulled back the sheets, and sat down on it, his movements stiff. He maneuvered himself around, pulled his feet up, then lay down with an almost inaudible sigh of relief.

Erwin cleared his throat. "I work most days, except Saturdays of course, and Friday's a half-day. So you'll have the house to yourself in the mornings. I usually have cereal for breakfast, so you're welcome to that, or something else if you want to make it. Lunch is-"

"What the hell are you doing?" Levi cut in.

Honestly baffled, Erwin replied, "I'm pretty sure I was giving you my schedule."

"I mean this." He waved an arm around a bit weakly, but with clear annoyance. "This whole sleepover party thing. Cut the fucking bullshit. Do you think I'm some kind of stray animal, that all you have to do is put out a bowl of milk for me and I'll come crawling to you gratefully?"

Looked like this conversation was going to be happening now. Damn. Erwin would have preferred to give it some more time. Moreover, there were no other chairs in the room, which meant that he was looking down on Levi where he was lying in bed, which surely wasn't putting him in a less competitive frame of mind.

"Not at all," Erwin said evenly. "Is the concept of kindness so foreign to you?"

"You're the ones who shot me," Levi sneered.

"You went ballistic in my house for three days," Erwin said, refusing to get annoyed. Petra had said that Levi tended to come back to this topic. "Mike was worried about me."

"It usually works," Levi said quietly, his mood sobering. The words trickled down Erwin's spine like ice water.

"What do you mean?"

"The haunted house shtick. You aren't the first one to talk big, but you're the first that held out so long."

Held out- Erwin was striding for the bed before he knew it, grabbed Levi by the collar and hoisted him up easily, ignoring Levi's slightly pained grunt. "Heroes?" he demanded, feeling ill. He'd figured that Levi had been trying to get him to fight, but hearing it admitted – he hadn't even considered that there had been others before him, and how it had ended. Clearly, since Levi was still here that meant –

"Yeah," Levi gasped. He’d wrapped both his hands around Erwin’s wrist, and Erwin couldn’t even tell if he was trying to pry the hand off or just hold himself up.

"What did you do to them?"

"What do you think, moron? Killed 'em."

Erwin shook him again, searching his face for some sign of remorse, regret, _something_. But with Eren's features overlying Levi's expressions he just couldn't tell, all he saw was Eren's eyes glittering challengingly at him above a mouth twisted in a painful grimace.

"How many?" he demanded. "Who?" He tried to think of heroes that had vanished in recent years, but how could you know if a hero left the streets because they died in battle or were murdered in bed or just decided to hang up their cape?

"Does it matter?" Levi asked.

There was just a hint of taunt in his voice, barely there, but enough to cut through the fury in Erwin's veins. He forced his hands down, lowering Levi back to the bed with as much gentleness as he could manage, and swallowed a torrent of angry words. This was what Levi wanted – Erwin angry. He had known that Levi was going to try and infuriate him (but why now, when Levi couldn’t fight back?). He had weathered physical attacks for three days; he could weather the verbal ones.

"No," Erwin said. "It doesn't." He had known Levi had done awful things, and decided despite that to try and save what good remained in him. It remained to be seen just how far Levi had fallen, because Erwin hadn't actually considered something like this. Selling weapons was so very sterile in comparison. It also wasn’t surprising, considering that the Underground was in the business of killing superpowered people. Still… "You didn't tell Eren any of this," he mused aloud. "You were afraid, weren't you? Of what he'd think of you if he knew."

Erwin looked back at Levi's face to find him stark white, pale as the sheets, eyes wide and lips bloodless.

"Oh," Levi whispered, shaky, so stiff he might shatter. His hands fisted convulsively in the sheets by his sides.

All of fifteen minutes in his home and he'd screwed up, Erwin realized. He wasn't _used_ to miscalculating so badly. "That's not what I mean," he said, mind racing to think of a way to not make it into the blackmail it sounded like.

He didn't think Levi even heard him. Eyes perfectly blank, Levi's gaze wandered to the ceiling and stayed there. Any defiance was gone, leaving him limp as a doll in the bed. Erwin had set him up perfectly: gotten him hooked on Eren, then shattered him with a well-timed blow. He'd be docile, now, shuttered, until he could either harden himself or submit and… _shit_. Fixing this meant exposing their weaknesses but if he didn't do it _now_ they didn't stand a chance with Levi.

"For god's sake," Erwin said, the words coming easily now that he'd set a course of action. "Eren's a bloodthirsty savage and black and white is only _almost_ extreme enough for him. He killed two murderers with a knife when he was nine. If you provoked them into attacking you with lethal force he'd probably argue that you were justified because they should have known better. Only if he likes you, though, but you're in luck - the kid's besotted. Does that make things clear?"

_If Levi goes then Eren might go off the deep end with him – and now Levi knows it –_

The edge was off, though, for now. Color back in his face, Levi's breathing had returned to normal and he was looking at Erwin again, his expression no longer panicked, but rather confused. Calculation was easy to read on his face since that sort of craftiness was definitely not Eren's forte, and it was enough to make Erwin feel cold again.

Before things could escalate once more, Erwin launched back into a stiffer, much more abbreviated version of his schedule and basic house rules and requests. He managed to finish without mishap this time, mostly because it was clear that neither he nor Levi particularly wanted to be talking to each other right now. Erwin needed to collect himself and reform his battle plans, and Levi probably wanted to contemplate how he could turn Eren against them.

Damn it all. Erwin finished, then beat what could only be charitably called a retreat. Eager to keep at least a door or two between him and his guest he holed up in his own room, shut the door, and began pacing.

So aside from being an illegal arms dealer, Levi was an out-and-out murderer; apparently he hadn’t escaped the Underground completely unscathed. The bright side was that it confirmed Erwin’s suspicion that Levi hadn’t intended to kill him (because if he’d wanted to he definitely could have), but painting him in a redeemable light was becoming more and more difficult, and if they ever did reach the point where he was registering Levi as a hero they were definitely going to have to sweep a whole lot under the carpet.

Sending him to prison was still an option, Erwin reminded himself. He'd had a talk with Widget, interested in Levi's potential terms of incarceration if it came to that. It turned out that there were some new developments in holding shifters: While most of them were still kept drugged and isolated to prevent shifting, there was apparently a new device in development that would revolutionize shifter captivity, Widget said. It was a shift-sensitive implant, ideally set so that a shift triggered the release of a drug or toxin into the bloodstream, immobilizing the shifter until troops could come pick them up, alerted by a signal from the device. As shifters tended to have resistance to drugs, they could be outfitted with an explosive instead.

"The problem," Widget had said enthusiastically, "is that it turns out that a lot of shifters don't actually have full voluntary control over their powers, or they just can't hold themselves back all the time. They've already had two cases of accidental triggering, and it's not like there are that many shifters to try it on, you know? One was really nasty, the guy had his leg blown off."

Saving Levi's life for that seemed rather like a waste. Putting him away as a non-shifter arms dealer would be more humane, but he'd probably get a life sentence, and Erwin frankly didn't trust Levi not to walk. Oh, with prodding he might last a few years at most, but a lifetime? No way. _Nobody_ had enough guilt to just sit their whole life in prison when they could leave any time.

So where did that leave them? Basically where he'd started, only a bit bleaker.

Of course, there was still the eminently probable chance that Levi would make a run for it the first chance he got and the Scouts would be forced to track him down and there would be no more talk of rehabilitation. Erwin sighed, turned to do another circuit, when a loud crash made him jump.

Damn Levi— He sprinted for the kitchen.

There he found Levi, standing amidst shattered glass in front of his open tableware cabinet, a slightly guilty look in Eren's green eyes.

"Really, Levi?" he snapped, before he could stop himself. What did it take for Levi to just get bored with wrecking his house?

"It fell," Levi said defensively. "I just wanted a drink and it fell."

Erwin opened his mouth to retort but managed to pause at the last minute, registering Levi's odd, stiff stance, the way his right hand was clenched convulsively around his abdomen, and then let his eyes travel to the still-open glassware cabinet with its rows of glasses at eye level – for him. Eren was a bit shorter than he was. Levi must have reached with his left arm, overextended, and flinched.

"Stay there," he said, gesturing at Levi's socked feet. "I'll go get a broom."

He returned moments later with a broom and dustpan, to find that Levi hadn't moved from his spot, obediently waiting for Erwin to clear away the glass.

"I don't know why you're bothering with me," Levi said tightly. "Even if I agreed, you'd never trust me. This is pointless. You can't even trust me to break a fucking glass by accident."

"I apologize," Erwin said. "I jumped to conclusions." He swept away the last of the glass and threw it away, then set aside the broom and took down a new glass for Levi, filled it with water, and tried to hand it to him. Levi didn't move to accept it, his eyes fixed furiously on Erwin's face.

"You're _always_ going to jump to conclusions because _I'm a fucking supervillain!_ " Levi burst out. There was an edge to his voice that Erwin had never heard before. "The first time something goes wrong you'll jump to conclusions. Ten years down the line you'll still be fucking wondering. You won't ever forget that I crawled out of the sewers. And some day it'll be too much and you'll throw me away. So why not save ourselves all the shit and skip to the end?"

"What happens at the end?"

"You hunt me down. There will probably be a dramatic showdown. Maybe in the rain. There will be lots of 'you don't want to do this' and 'this isn't who you are'. I'll probably end up dead by an attack that you didn't mean to kill me with."

"I think you watch too much TV," Erwin replied. Shock flickered through Levi's eyes for an instant, followed by fury – because maybe it was melodramatic, but some part of Levi believed it. "But why not consider the other scenario? The one where you join the team and save people. The one where you become a hero."

“No,” Levi snapped, too quickly. “That doesn’t happen.”

“Why not?”

“Because you don’t want me because you think I’m good inside, you want me because I’ve got superpowers. I don’t see you begging every two-bit criminal on the street to join you.” Behind his sneer Levi looked a little pale, and was swaying with the effort of keeping upright.

“You’re wrong,” Erwin said bluntly, thankful this, at least, was true. “We’ve given a lot of people second chances. It’s just not often anybody takes them.”

“Oh,” Levi said, his tone neutral for the first time that day. The sardonic edge was gone, leaving just honest surprise. This time, when Erwin handed him the glass of water he accepted it and wandered off, lost in thought.

At least he was quiet, now, and Erwin could hopefully get some work done. He headed for his small office and was just reaching out for the door handle when Eren’s – Levi’s – voice stopped him. He forced himself not to sigh.

“Isn’t there something wrong with letting all these criminals walk instead of sending them to prison?”

At least the question didn’t sound overtly antagonistic, which was a good start.

“I didn’t say we give _unlimited_ chances,” Erwin replied. “You look pale. I don’t mind having this conversation, but do you want to sit down?”

Levi bristled at him, for a moment looking so much like Eren it was uncanny. “I’m fine.”

Erwin entered his office and left the door invitingly open, then gestured to the extra chair when Levi deigned to slouch his way in.

“No wonder you’re the head of this shitty team,” Levi grumbled. “Commander Mother Hen is what you are.”

“I do make a decent chicken soup,” Erwin said, and was quite pleased when something like frustrated amusement flashed across Levi’s face. “And back to the previous topic, if we do decide to give a chance, it’s never more than one.”

“What do the victims think of your precious chances?”

“We don’t ask them. If they want to deal justice, they’re welcome to join our ranks and do it their way.”

Levi cocked his head and narrowed his eyes at Erwin. “It’s interesting you’d let people go unpunished.”

“Prison isn’t punishment,” Erwin objected.

“Hah. Of course it is. People like knowing that shitty people are behind bars getting beaten up by other shitty people. People like watching the villains brought to justice. In movies you get to watch them beaten up, and in real life you get to think about rapists getting raped in prison. It’s because we don’t have gladiators and hangings anymore. That’s why people like superheroes. They see you in the streets and know that you hurt bad guys. Wouldn’t you want to hurt me if you knew who I killed?”

And back to square one. Erwin had to resist the very strong temptation to bang his head into his desk repeatedly. It was only the knowledge that Levi was being exasperating on purpose that kept Erwin from shouting something regrettable back at him.

“When I brought you here,” Erwin said levelly, “it was because I decided to set aside your past. I don’t care about it. I care about your future. If you become a hero, your sponsor – that is, me – takes responsibility for your subsequent behavior. I would have to vouch for you, and I would be held accountable if you suddenly went darkside. It would be seen as a lapse in _my_ judgment. I would have to take you down, and I’d risk having my own status revoked. If your past came to light, it would be equally awkward for me, because while reformed supervillains do exist, they’re not often truly accepted into the superhero community. Especially not shapeshifters. Do you understand me?” Erwin felt like he was practically pleading. “I’m offering you a clean slate and a new identity. It’s a fucking get out of jail free card. I’m offering you a community that will take care of you, and the chance to be a hero.”

Levi looked at him through Eren’s bright green eyes, his brows drawn together and worried lines creasing his forehead. “You couldn’t trust me,” he said, but the words lacked conviction. Plain as day, the desire to be the person Erwin described – safe, stable, happy, a _hero_ – was written all over his face.

“I want to trust you,” Erwin said, keeping his voice soft and persuasive. His heart thrummed with excitement that he was finally _getting through_ , Levi’s guard was down and his face open –

“But, I mean,” Levi said hesitantly, “if the deal’s this good, what’s stopping me from agreeing and then bailing on you once my trial period’s over-“ The realization of what he was saying made his eyes widen and he clapped a hand over his mouth, but the damage was done.

“Not a thing.” Erwin closed his eyes briefly. “I _want_ to trust you,” he said again, through a tight jaw. “But you’re making it pretty fucking difficult.”

To this Levi had no answer. After a few seconds of silence he stood up and walked stiffly to the doorway, then vanished down the hall.

“This would be so much easier if you stopped shooting yourself in the foot,” Erwin muttered, pulled out his laptop, and finally settled down  to get some work done.

\---

That night, Erwin dreamed that he was standing in a windstorm by a cliff’s edge, with Levi hanging from his arm and dangling over the abyss. Levi was clinging to him, terror in his eyes, and though Erwin knew he was strong enough to hold on, he let go and watched Levi fall and fall.

Erwin woke with a jolt in his bed, thoroughly disgusted at the melodrama of his unconscious mind.

\---

He thought he was doing a good job at getting back to work normally. The boss had originally been furious, but one look at Erwin’s swollen face and damaged hands and he’d thoughtfully consented to overlook the three days he’d missed. Nanaba had given him an awkward little pep talk laced with innuendo about their double life; Erwin appreciated the effort. Rico let things slide, but watched him like a hawk, and today she was on him the moment he set out for his lunch break.

“What are you up to?” she asked, falling into stride.

“Lunch,” Erwin answered easily, just for the disgusted look it got him.

“And the problems you were having?”

“Not a problem any more.”

She huffed in annoyance. “Identity breaches are a problem for _everybody_ ,” she said. “Just watch it, Smith.”

“You left me alone about it for a whole week,” Erwin observed. “Why are you getting on my case about it now?”

She gave him a severe look through her wire-rimmed glasses. “You’ve gotten all squirrelly. I know you’re up to something.”

“I’m up to lots of things,” Erwin said honestly. “But I don’t think they’re any of your business.”

He left her seething, but decided he didn’t care too much. The others hardly ever took time to help out the Scouts except for when there was glory to be stolen. And while some of the heroes were big into the no-killing thing – one of the Big Names was famous for constantly imprisoning his nemesis even though the guy was an utter psychopath and everybody really just wanted him dead already (to be honest, even Erwin had toyed with the idea of doing a hit on him, even though it was a gross breach of territory) – not many of them would put in the effort of a proper rehabilitation, and especially not when it involved a shapeshifter.

Better keep it to himself. Worst case, if it all went to crap he’d file Levi as a supervillain and just neglect to mention the recruitment attempt.

Walking home he found a spring in his step for sheer relief at being able to get out of the oppressive house, and that gave him pause. Maybe Levi was sick of being cooped up as well, which might be a factor in his consistently terrible mood.

Either way, it was certainly worth a try.

\---

“Why are we in a junkyard?” Levi grumped, following Erwin with ill will. Getting him out of the house had been a challenge, but he hadn’t put up nearly as much resistance as Erwin had worried, which meant his guess was right. Levi was probably dying for a change of scenery.

While Erwin was in uniform as usual when he went out for things like this, Levi was back in sunglasses and a hoodie. The gray hoodie, Erwin was amused to notice; Petra had evidently been correct about his fondness for it.

“Training,” Erwin said, waving a hand expressively over the piles of scrap metal and broken-down cars. “Not all of us can afford hi-tech training rooms, so we make do.”

“So what,” Levi said, taking in the heaps of twisted metal, “you come here to throw cars around?”

Erwin went over to a likely-looking shell, dug his fingers, and lifted. “Exactly.”

Levi looked rather impressed in spite of himself, which prompted Erwin to show off a little, raising the entire thing above his head in as smooth a movement as he could manage. He would probably regret not doing a more gradual warmup, but at least he hadn’t started with anything terribly heavy. It was probably only 500 kilos or so.

With a flourish, Erwin then tossed it aside onto the scrap heap, which let out a gratifying squeal of tortured metal.

“How much can you lift?” Levi asked. When Erwin turned to him, he saw that Levi had settled on the cleanest piece of non-metal scrap he could find, legs splayed out and leaning back on his palms. His body was relaxed, and the tone of the question idle curiosity rather than antagonism.

“You can take off the hood,” Erwin suggested. “There’s nobody here but us.”

Levi complied immediately, pulling it down and running fingers through his hair, and tucked the sunglasses into a pocket.

“I can lift about a ton without too much strain,” Erwin said, just a bit awkwardly because while a ton was a _lot_ of weight he couldn’t even pick up a van, much less stop a train in its tracks. As super strength went it wasn’t that great, but Levi seemed decently impressed when Erwin went to find a large bar for some one-armed lifting. “How about you?”

“Weight? It’s proportionate to whatever I shift into. If I make bigger muscles I get stronger. I could pick up a truck or something if I turned into the dragon.”

“Huh.” Erwin set the bar aside and straightened up. “You can just shift more muscles to make yourself stronger?” Not that Erwin was the type for jealousy, but he felt just the tiniest prickling of discomfort. Levi could duplicate _so many_ of their powers.

“Within reason. I mean, not like you. Look at you lifting that car.” Levi flapped a lazy hand at Erwin. “Must be so useful. Damn, I miss shifting.”

“Did you shift often?” Erwin asked, as he hunted around for the makeshift barbell he’d made the second time he’d come here. He’d twisted together a bunch of heavy aluminum rods and crushed a car chassis or two on either end for weights. Finding it, he lay down on the ground and settled in for some bench presses.

“Yeah.” Levi’s tone was far-off, and he watched Erwin vaguely, eyes unfocused. “All the time. Like if I was reading in the living room and wanted something out of the kitchen, I’d just reach out a tentacle. Or if I needed to muck around on the ceiling I’d make myself taller.”

Amazing how easily Levi opened up, out here in the sun with Erwin’s focus not so directly on him. Perhaps even Levi was getting tired of the constant sniping.

“Going out, too. No point going out as myself.”

“Why?” Erwin set aside the barbell to take a breather and sat up.

“Aside from not wanting to be recognized, why not look however I want to look, if I can?”

“Do you dislike your body?”

Levi chuckled. “Barking up the wrong tree. Do you _not_ use your super strength when it’s convenient? I can shift for shits and giggles, so I do.”

“So what do you like going out as?”

“Whatever I feel like, it always changes. I turn into a hot girl for bars, though.”

“ _What_?” Erwin straightened in surprise.

Levi smirked. “I’d wait for somebody to slip me date-rape, then beat them up outside. What’s with that face?” He bristled, the guardedness coming back.

“That’s a really good idea,” Erwin said honestly. “Have you considered cooperating with the police?” It was positively brilliant – Levi could infiltrate human trafficking rings, bait kidnappers and child predators… the possibilities were endless. _It’s heroic_ , Erwin wanted to say, but that might be pushing too fast.

Levi shifted in his seat, clearly uncomfortable with the praise. “Don’t make a huge fucking deal out of it, I just beat up some assholes,” he said.

“I’m serious. Any police force would die to have your cooperation. Interpol would love you.”

“Interpol would love to have me in fucking _prison_ ,” Levi muttered, the momentary pride Erwin had glimpsed on his face vanishing without a trace.

Erwin elected to leave him alone for a bit, and went back to his workout routine. Every so often he glanced at Levi, and when he was finally finished he saw that the shifter had fallen asleep, curled up like a cat in the sun. Erwin came up to him and paused, inspecting his sleeping features. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it or not, because only a week had passed, but he thought that Levi was looking just a bit less like Eren than he previously had. His cheekbones seemed just a touch more defined, making Eren’s face seem a bit older, and his hair had a slightly darker tint to it. Certainly nothing noticeable if you weren’t looking for it, but enough to give Erwin hope that Levi would indeed be able to shift back to his own form. He would have reached out to touch Levi on the shoulder to wake him, thought better of it, and cleared his throat instead. Levi jerked awake like a shot and then convulsed around his wounded side, panting harshly.

“Fucker,” he gasped.

“Sorry,” Erwin replied, even though he hadn’t done anything. “Shall we head back?”

Levi glared up at him for a moment, evidently waiting for Erwin to make some comment, which Erwin pointedly refrained from doing. He just nodded mildly and headed for the car, listening, listening – there. Levi was following.

\---

And yet, for every step forward, they took two steps back. Levi was antagonistic most of the time that he wasn’t holed up alone in his room, and the one time Mike showed up for a visit he broke three plates. He said it was an accident, he’d been startled, and just washing Erwin’s dishes (with a few comments about what a massively disgusting slob Erwin was), and though Erwin made himself nod acceptance for the excuse, he felt a niggling doubt.

Levi must have noticed, because half an hour later Erwin heard a loud crash and found him standing in the middle of the living room, having smashed a chair into one of the few surviving light fixtures.

“ _That_ was on purpose,” Levi snarled and stumbled back to the guest room, back stiff.

\---

Frankly, Erwin hadn’t considered just how stressful having a sudden roommate could be. He couldn’t bring friends over because he was unwilling to expose them to Levi (both because of risk to them and because of Levi generally being lousy company), he had to make sure Levi had enough to eat, had his bandages changed, and was entertained enough to not be more unpleasant than usual. When Erwin brought in new sofas he was extremely pleased with, Levi said they were ugly, and when he changed the light fixtures Levi complained that they weren’t bright enough and he should use fluorescent.

And after every single complaint he would pause, give Erwin a challenging look to see how he’d react.

Then there was the time Erwin had come back to find Levi huddled in his room, and when Erwin asked if he wanted dinner Levi had told him flatly to fuck off. Annoyed, Erwin went into the kitchen to figure something out, only to find dinner waiting for him. He assumed Levi had exhausted himself preparing it, and went to thank him afterwards.

“Don’t humor me,” Levi said from the bed. “It was crap. I couldn’t chop anything properly. And I put in too much salt.”

“It was great,” Erwin insisted, but Levi seemed to get no pleasure from his words. What bothered Erwin worse than the failure itself was that Levi didn’t try again. Where Eren would done it over and over until he got it right, Levi curled in on himself and surrendered – and that was worrisome. The signs were clearly visible: Levi was backsliding, slowly but surely. So many little things came together into a picture that Erwin didn’t like in the least.

When Erwin had first called Levi a supervillain he’d been taken aback and not particularly keen to label himself as one, and yet a scant few weeks later and he’d adopted the label, which to Erwin was a big step in the wrong direction. Combined with his constant admonitions to Eren about how evil he was and the little self-deprecating comments to Erwin, Erwin suspected that Levi was setting himself up for failure. By placing the Scouts on a pedestal he could never hope to reach he was well on the way to convincing himself there was no point in even trying.

The lethargy was all the more pronounced because Eren didn’t make those kinds of expressions. Eren was sad, angry, happy – every emotion of his was powerful. Wearing Eren’s face, Levi made him look gray and washed out, leeched of personality. Nobody now could confuse the two.

Hoping that a change in scenery would jolt Levi out of his rut, Erwin offered to take him to visit Eren. Levi actually perked up for a brief moment, before the light went out of his eyes and he told Erwin not to bother. It was better like this, Levi said. Let the kid forget about him.

“He’s been asking after you,” Erwin said. When Levi just burrowed back into his book without answering, Erwin decided that fuck secret identities, called Eren, and arranged to pick him up. He dropped Eren (who came armed with a backpack of games and an expression of fierce determination) off at his house, and headed off for a much-needed break from his dour housemate at Mike’s.

Upon entering Erwin made a beeline for the nearest sofa and unceremoniously swept the mess off of it and onto the floor so he could flop down and spread out.

“Beer?” Mike asked, sounding amused, and Erwin let out a groan that could have sounded something like ‘please’. A can was tossed towards him which Erwin caught easily, pleased that he no longer crushed beer cans with the lightest touch like he had when his powers first manifested. Mike evidently remembered those days, too.

Armed with his own beer, Mike headed towards the opposite sofa and manufactured a place to sit. Levi would probably complain about the mess, Erwin thought, though Mike’s house was mostly a “clean” mess; books and papers, clean laundry waiting to be folded. Still, Levi acted like anything less than absolute sterility was no better than a garbage – Erwin groaned again. Even now he couldn’t get Levi out of his head.

“At least he’s not beating you up,” Mike said, scrutinizing Erwin from under his floppy bangs, his gaze much sharper than the scruff would lead you to believe. Being so huge, Mike cultivated his oversized-puppy look carefully, Erwin knew.

“Can we _not_ talk about Levi for… five minutes?” Erwin pleaded. “I need a break.”

So they talked about something else. Sports, which Mike was into, Erwin sort of was, and Levi found intensely boring. Other superheroes and what they were up to, like that recent fiasco with kidnapping the president that one of the Big Names recently dealt with alone, apparently because none of his friends cared enough to help. Recent bills proposed to congress about treatment of super powered humans, the riots in countries less enlightened than their own. They avoided discussing the political situation in the Middle East because that was just pointless and depressing.

“I do actually need to talk to you about Levi,” Mike said, when Erwin was somewhere around his third beer and quite a bit more relaxed.

Erwin heaved a sigh, waiting for Mike to start in again about how annoying Levi was, or how hopeless the endeavor was, or a host of other thoughts that had occurred to Erwin already.

“You want him to join the team,” Mike said, his voice deceptively mild. “As far as the team goes, if you can make it happen, that’s not bad. He’ll be a strong addition.” Mike paused, took a sip, then continued, not looking at Erwin. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, and I don’t think there’ll be a better time. If it works out with Levi, I’m going to retire.”

The can crumpled in Erwin’s hand, spilling its contents all over the floor. He didn’t even notice. “What?”

“He can take my place.”

“I _need you_ ,” Erwin said, his stomach hollowed out and voice strained in his ears.

“Levi is far stronger than I could ever hope to be,” Mike said softly, every word a punch in Erwin’s gut. “If you need to track, he could probably turn into an actual bloodhound and-“

“Don’t you start with the jealousy too!” Erwin was on his feet, voice just short of shouting. “What the hell, Mike? I can’t replace you-“

“I’m not jealous,” Mike said, voice so firm it made Erwin hesitate. “My powers aren’t combat based. That’s reality.”

“Widget doesn’t have physical powers either-“

“Widget can decide things for herself. I’m not going to abandon you, Erwin. I’m just giving you a heads up. I don’t want to end up crippled or dead.”

“Some of the Big Names are crippled and it doesn’t stop them,” Erwin muttered.

“I’m not a Big Name,” Mike said. “I won’t ever be. I don’t think any of us will - except maybe Eren, and Levi. Have you thought of that?”

“Screw Levi,” Erwin burst out. “Screw _you_ for making me choose, but if I have to choose, I’ll take you. Levi can go to hell.”

Ever since Levi had walked into Erwin’s life he’d been making a mess of it. Risking his job, ruining his house, destroying his team – Levi was a menace, like he said. There was a kind of relief in admitting it to himself, in setting aside the constant forced patience to face reality. Levi was an asshole.

“So you no longer think he’s worth saving?”

“Not at the price of you.”

“Is that what you’ll tell him when you kick him out of your house?”

“I-“ Erwin froze, uneasy. Wildfire had said she didn’t think there was much hope, but what would it do to him, being rejected by the people who had claimed they were there to save him? For all his issues, Levi wasn’t truly _evil_. Yet.

Erwin thought of tug-of-war, how if you let go of the rope the other side would go flying back. In the game of tension they were playing, if Erwin were to let go, Levi would fall.

“There has to be a way around it,” Erwin said, rallying his conviction, but trailed off in the face of the disappointed look Mike was giving him.

“If you only ever wanted him for his powers,” Mike said, “I don’t think what you did to him was fair.”

“You’re the one who’s making me choose,” Erwin retorted. The betrayal licking at the corners of his mind was difficult to keep in check. They’d been fighting side by side ever since Erwin’s powers had showed. They’d trained under Shadows together, even though Mike didn’t have combat-based powers and Shadows had been reluctant to sponsor him at first. Before the Scouts had been a team it had been him and Mike, proving just how far you could go with good strategy because power grades weren’t everything.

How many missions had they run together, the two of them, before Widget and Wildfire and Carnage had joined? They’d fought the Underground, they’d rescued Eren – and sure, there had been some close shaves, but nothing they couldn’t deal with.

Yet Mike had said he’d been thinking of it for a while… how long was a while? How long had Mike been wanting to leave? If he took Mike on a mission and Mike was hurt, how could he live with himself, knowing Mike was only doing it for his sake?

“If you succeed in winning Levi over you won’t need me,” Mike said. “I would be able to sleep well knowing somebody that powerful has your back.”

“Plenty of superheroes don’t have superpowers,” Erwin said, and hated himself for how wretched he sounded. It would have helped if Mike had been a jerk about it so Erwin could just get angry and punch him in the face – but they no longer did that, because Erwin couldn’t _afford_ to punch people in the face when he was angry.

“They usually make up for it with tragic pasts, lots of money, and extended intense training trips in Asia. I don’t have any of those things.”

Erwin considered making a comment about how Thailand was extremely affordable this time of year, but decided against it. “What if it doesn’t work?” he asked instead, trying not to sound eager. Some part of him wanted to get down and beg Mike to stay but he _couldn’t_ , couldn’t expose himself so readily. It must be obvious to Mike anyway, he thought. Mike was his oldest friend.

Mike didn’t answer immediately, sat back down and took another long drink, then set the can down. “If it doesn’t work I will stay, of course,” he said, a heaviness in his voice that Erwin didn’t want to think about. “I wouldn’t have said anything, but you seemed so gung ho about recruiting Levi I thought it would encourage you.” He shrugged. “It’s up to you, now. I never thought I’d say this, but you make me feel sorry for Levi. He’s so unwanted.”

Seeing Mike sit down unlocked Erwin’s knees and he collapsed back onto the sofa, his surroundings slowly trickling back into his consciousness. His hand was still clenched around the crumpled beer can and sticky with beer. He was sitting on a book that was poking him uncomfortably in the thigh. The summer’s daylight had almost completely gone, leaving the room far darker than it had been when Erwin entered. They should turn on a light, he thought; sitting in the dark was silly.

“Fuck you,” Erwin said, tired. He stood up and felt stupid, because he’d just sat down, but decided he had to get out of here. He needed to not be looking at Mike’s face right now, because he couldn’t be angry when Mike was giving him such a level, serious look.

With barely a few more stuttering attempts at conversation Erwin made to head for the door, but Mike’s hand on his wrist stopped him.

“Erwin. I’m sorry.”

He couldn’t even disbelieve Mike’s sincerity. “I know.”

“We’re still friends. I’ve still got your back, as long as you need me.”

“…I know.” Erwin gently shook him off, trying to seem like he wasn’t, and took his leave.

Out of Mike’s now-oppressive apartment and away from his judgmental gaze, the warm summer breeze fanned Erwin’s anger. He forced himself not to slam the car door and his shoulders tensed from how hard he had to try to not crush the steering wheel. He should go to the junkyard and tear up some scrap, he thought, but he needed to get home. Needed to solve the thing with Levi once and for all.

Losing Mike was not an option. Not for Levi. Not for _anyone_. Which meant that operation Recruit Levi would have to be aborted – but how?

 _Unwanted_ , Mike had said, and if that described anyone it described Levi. Unwanted as a child, unwanted as an adult, and Erwin couldn’t possibly explain to him that it wasn’t personal. Could he be convinced to join another team or be sponsored by somebody else? But who would possibly accept a trainee that had to be dragged kicking and screaming (metaphorically… he hoped) through the entire process? And how could he make Levi want it without seeming like he was trying to get rid of him?

Perhaps if Erwin introduced him to some other potential sponsors – Big Names, even. Levi was powerful enough that once they got wind of him, they’d be lining up. But who might be interested in investing so much effort in rehabilitation? As far as he knew, while most of them would spend countless hours angsting about their own tragic pasts and expend endless reserves of compassion towards old friends and enemies, who might be willing to do it for an unknown? The problem was that all superheroes came with baggage, and Big Names came with bigger baggage.

A soft chuckle broke through. Levi would fit right in.

Maybe Levi was the one who should go on a training trip to Thailand or somewhere. There had to be some guru who’d be willing to take him in and spend a few years teaching him to find his inner peace or whatever.

Erwin banged the steering wheel (gently, gently). It would never work, because Levi didn’t _want_ to become a superhero, and how could Erwin convince him to try when the fact of the matter was that Erwin himself didn’t believe Levi could do it? How many years could Erwin spend coaxing and coddling? He wasn’t a psychologist. No wonder Levi responded better to Eren – Eren threw himself into it heart and soul, while Erwin just wanted Levi to hurry up and get over his issues so he could put on a uniform fall into line. But you didn’t put a fifteen year old in charge of rehabilitating supervillains.

Besides, Erwin was the one who had started this whole mess. Erwin had engineered the meeting with Eren, and Erwin had decided that Levi might be able to be saved. It was Erwin who had disrupted the fragile status-quo inside Levi’s head.

Yet even that wasn’t completely accurate, because Levi had chosen to be a supervillain all by himself. Had Levi not gone into international arms dealing there might have been more grounds for leniency, but even some of the schools famous for taking care of teenaged and difficult superpowered people might look askance at a shapeshifter who wasn’t even really dedicated to going straight. Add to that the fact that Levi had a few superhero murders under his belt…

Ah, but Levi had been raised by the Underground. Erwin cursed. Nothing like spending his formative years with a paramilitary group dedicated to wiping out or recruiting anybody with superpowers they deemed “dangerous” to spoil somebody for a school environment. Who the hell would trust him around a bunch of superpowered kids? They’d probably figure he was a sleeper agent at best.

Out of all the problems with Levi, at least that was one Erwin wasn’t particularly worried about. Levi was independent right now; Erwin would stake his reputation on it. Not that he had much of one. Certainly not enough to convince anybody to overlook all of Levi’s issues enough to get him on the side of Good.

Since any attempt at all on Erwin’s part would probably be read as trying to get rid of Levi (which regrettably was sort of true), Levi would probably respond with an immediate and dramatic case of flying right off the handle, and they’d have a nasty, pissed-off shapeshifter with a background of superhero killing on their hands.

So what was left to do? Erwin had to take responsibility. It was up to him to end this mess. If only Levi could be-

The thought made Erwin unconsciously slow the car and he had to pull over, just to consider it properly. Levi was wounded. At this moment in time, Levi wasn’t a threat, was in Erwin’s house, practically defenseless. And Erwin owned a gun.

He could just end it. No more threat. No more trying and trying to reach out to somebody who might never respond. No more worrying that Levi would burst apart at the seams and become a threat they couldn’t deal with. Erwin would have his team back, his _life_ back.

It didn’t even have to hurt, he thought. He could wait until Levi was asleep – guaranteed to be heavy, because Levi was taking sleeping medication to prevent him from constantly being woken up by the pain – and put a bullet in his head. Levi wouldn’t even know. Instant, painless death, and well, maybe there was an afterlife where Levi would realize what Erwin had done to him, but that was out of Erwin’s jurisdiction.

Mike would stay, and Eren – ah, what to do about Eren? If he could make it look like Levi had attacked him – that would demand some creative wounding on his part, and he’d have to convince Mike as well. He could say that Levi’s shifting abilities had returned faster than expected, and Levi’d tried to cut and run. During Levi’s previous stay in Erwin’s house he’d already attacked Erwin in his sleep, once. Picture this: Levi sneaking up and trying to stab Erwin, who is woken by some miracle, sees the silhouette and goes for his gun. After a few serious cuts he manages to get in a lucky shot in the dark and then turns on the light to see Levi. Of course he’s disappointed that his attempts failed, betrayed that he’d gone to so much effort all for naught. He’d have to be especially convincing with Mike, since it was right after their conversation. He’d say that he had taken Mike’s words to heart, and tried to honestly change how he treated Levi, but maybe Levi had taken it the wrong way.

And he’d be free. Life would resume its course.

Erwin pulled back into the street with a slightly uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach, but mostly relief. He’d made hard calls before. The Scouts didn’t play games, and Levi wouldn’t be the exception any longer. The safety of his team was paramount.

He parked and entered his house to find it oddly quiet. “Hello? Eren? Levi?” He strode towards the living room to find Levi sitting alone with a book, no sign of Eren, and his stomach gave a horrible flop.

“Here,” Levi said, looking up at him with hooded Eren-eyes. “Eren went home already. He helped me make dinner.” Levi gave a half-hearted gesture towards the table where Erwin could see two plates set out, and what looked like curry and rice. “He said he was okay taking the bus by himself.” There was a slightly anxious edge to Levi’s voice.

Erwin clamped down on the automatic suspicion. “Why didn’t you invite him to stay and eat?” he asked, keeping his tone light. “Eren’s always hungry.”

“Well,” Levi looked down, uncharacteristically embarrassed, and twisted his hands in the hem of his shirt. “I wanted to talk to you, and since I’m crap at it anyway, I didn’t think having the kid around would help.”

“Shall we sit down, then?” Erwin said, a bit nonplussed. What had happened? Levi was being… disturbingly nice. The curry looked good, too, and smelled great. Apparently with Eren’s help he’d gotten over whatever chopping and seasoning problems had plagued his last attempt. Levi watched him with an intensity that could rival Eren’s while he took a bite, and relaxed a bit when Erwin smiled and complimented the taste.

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry I’m an asshole,” he said. “I don’t know how to talk to people. The last friends I had – it… was ugly. I haven’t lived with anybody since – since a long time ago. Don’t look at me, I can’t say this shit if you’re looking at me.” Erwin dropped his gaze to his plate and focused on the curry, though he was itching to watch the expressions flit across Levi’s face. “And you and Eren seem to think I can become some kind of fucking hero, which is crazy shit. I can’t do that. I tried, once, and everything went wrong. It always goes wrong when I try to do the right thing. So it can’t work. But nobody ever tried to believe in me before.”

Erwin looked up then to find that Levi had a painfully earnest expression on his face.

 _I was planning to kill you tonight_ , Erwin thought. Once more, for a moment, he thought of the person Levi could be if he tried and he wondered how much he’d be willing to sacrifice to make that happen. He’d become a hero to save people, he thought, not just because it was expected of you if you had superpowers. He believed in making the world a safer, better place. Somehow fighting, getting hurt, battling day after day and risking his life seemed easy, yet fighting his way through the tortured landscape of Levi’s mind was infinitely hard. Even so, if he saved Levi – if Levi became a hero and saved people, if Levi became a Big Name someday and forgot about Erwin – if when Erwin had long hung up his cape Levi was saving the world – wouldn’t that be a great thing?

There was a saying he’d heard once, that saving one person was like saving an entire world.

He looked across the table at Levi, who for once looked nothing at all like Eren, though he wore his face, and realized that he wanted to see it happen. Maybe this was a worthy cause, a great cause, maybe even worth losing friends or dying for. Erwin had saved lives before, but he’d never saved a soul.

“Just because you never succeeded doesn’t mean you can give up,” he said. “You could do so much good in the world. I don’t think you even realize how much.”

Levi sighed in exasperation. “Are you going to tell me that with great power comes great responsibility?”

“No. _Everybody_ has responsibility. With great power comes great _ability_. You’re no more responsible to be a good person than anybody else in this world, but your capacity to do good is far beyond most people’s.”

Maybe this was the first time Erwin had spoken with true conviction, he thought, because Levi was _listening_. He might not be convinced, he wasn’t there yet, but Erwin’s words were reaching him.

“I’m not asking you for an answer now, or tomorrow, or even next week. But I want you to know that when you try, I’m going to help you, and if you fall, I’ll catch you. So will Eren, if you weren’t clear on that.” There was something frightening about making that promise, giving himself so thoroughly, but Erwin was beginning to realize that had been his mistake all along. He had demanded that Levi change who he was without being willing to give himself in return.

Wherever it lead, he thought, whether Levi succeeded or failed – whether _Erwin_ succeeded or failed – he would give it his all, with no reservations.

“Okay,” Levi said, his voice just a bit thin, but firm. It wasn’t a promise. It wasn’t anything, really, but from that day on things started changing (or maybe they didn’t change at all, and Erwin just wasn’t fighting it any longer). Levi became less acerbic, and Erwin left him alone when he needed to be alone. Levi tried not to break things, and when he did he cleaned up after himself, and not once did Erwin think he’d done it on purpose. Eren came visiting again, and Levi went to Wildfire’s, and the next time Erwin talked to Mike he found that he wasn’t nearly as angry as he thought he’d be. Probation took years, anyway. Even if Levi joined and Mike left, there was time.

That was why when a week and a half later and barely a month after the shooting, when Levi vanished, it hurt a lot more than Erwin had anticipated, even though part of him had been waiting for just that to happen.


	9. Interlude

This is how it happened:

The day had been much like any other day. Thinking back, Erwin could honestly say he didn’t think Levi had been acting any differently that morning. No sign of additional stress, shiftiness, or anything to hint that he had been planning to leave. Levi washed Erwin’s breakfast dishes, saying that Erwin always did a shoddy job in the mornings because he was in a rush to get to work. Before Levi, Erwin had mostly not bothered with morning dishwashing, leaving them in the sink to take care of when he got home. The disgusted look Levi nailed him with when he realized this was a habit and not a one-off thing made Erwin halfheartedly try to take care of them for the sake of a peaceful home, and eventually led to Levi’s taking over the breakfast cleanup duties.

Levi was looking better, Erwin noted, healthier, though he hadn’t tried shifting. While Erwin suspected that even if Levi were able to shift he’d hide it in order to have trump card, he told himself firmly not to care.

“I’m going to Eren’s this afternoon,” Levi said, and Erwin hadn’t thought much of it. It wasn’t the first time Levi’d gone over, and when Erwin had inquired once as to what they did together, Levi had shrugged and said they played games. He suggested that Levi teach him, but Levi had given him a skeptical look and hadn’t done anything about it. One of these days Erwin had planned to get Levi to show him, because an activity which they could share that didn’t make Levi antagonistic had to be a good use of time (even though Erwin had never been particularly interested in video games).

Ultimately, Erwin had nodded and left for work, unworried.

He returned home a few minutes after 6:00 and hadn’t worried at Levi’s lack of presence because he’d received a message at 4:12 from Eren that he’d gotten home and Levi was there. Assuming that Levi would stay for dinner, Erwin hadn’t checked in again until late in the evening, when he’d looked at the clock and realized it was past 10:00 and that _was_ odd – Levi didn’t usually spend the night. He had admitted to Erwin, in a rare bout of honesty, that he preferred having a room to himself but please don’t tell Eren, to which Erwin had replied, slightly nonplussed, that most adults preferred having a room to themselves if at all possible.

So Erwin had dialed Wildfire to ask what was going on, and if Levi needed a pickup.

“He left hours ago,” Wildfire said. “He didn’t arrive?”

Erwin cursed and disconnected, then shot out a message to all members. _HQ NOW_.

Evidently hearing from Wildfire, Carnage took upon himself to swing by Levi’s house on the way to HQ, and reported upon arrival that the place was empty and undisturbed as the day they’d left it.

Only when they had all assembled in the strategy room did Erwin realize that it was going on midnight and Eren, at least, had school tomorrow – but decided that wasn’t important now.

Levi was gone.

More than fear, Erwin felt a kind of anger that Levi would do something like this, just up and vanish without a word. Why now?

“Report,” he barked at his masked and costumed team, his mind stubbornly reminding him of a time not too long ago when he’d fancied Levi could become one of them.

“I don’t know what happened,” Wildfire said, just a bit sheepish. “I wasn’t home at the time. I’d gone shopping.”

All attention turned to Eren, who was shifting in his seat and scowling. “I tell you something’s happened to him!” he blurted.

“Why don’t you start with the facts and we go from there?”

Eren leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms on his chest, but complied. “I was doing homework. Levi was playing a game in the living room – I got him way hooked on Prototype. ‘Cause it’s about a shifter,” he added at their blank looks.

“Then?”

“Then Mrs. Lansmann from downstairs rang and asked if I could help her with some new closet she got. I told Levi I was going and he did this kind of shrug-nod thing he does. When I left him he was still playing. Then I got back and he was gone.”

“Why didn’t you _report it_?” Carnage grumbled.

“Because he gets like that sometimes!” Eren protested, still looking annoyed. “He gets all twitchy and doesn’t want to talk to anybody, and then he’ll go hide somewhere for a few hours to cool off. I thought he just went home.”

Mike turned to Erwin with an inquiring glance.

“It’s true,” Erwin confirmed. “He’s not used to being around people very much. If you give him some time he’ll come around. But Eren, you didn’t think it was strange?”

“I,” Eren began, then uncharacteristically looked down, eyebrows drawing together. “He’s my _friend_ ,” he blurted. “I thought, if he was angry, or he needed time, he’d come back. I didn’t think he’d just _leave_ without saying anything.”

Erwin knew to expect it, and maybe that’s what hurt. His mind understood that Levi was most likely to sneak away in silence, but he had hoped – a word, _something_. Allowing himself to be hurt by it was an indulgence. What were a few weeks against a lifetime of habit?

“So are we hunting him down?” Widget asked. “It’s a shame we didn’t think of it earlier, I could have tagged him with some kind of GPS.”

“He’s not a dog!” Surprisingly, Petra bristled before Eren could. “He couldn’t shift with it, anyway.”

“Why can’t Bloodhound track him?” Carnage asked.

“He smells like Titan,” Bloodhound replied. “Especially with all the time they spent together. Since he vanished from Titan’s house it’d be almost impossible to figure out which scent is his. With time, I probably could.”

“I can set up surveillance cameras, or maybe whip up some cambots!” Widget announced. “There’s still a chance he’ll go back to old haunts, and we’ll be ready for him. Oh! What do you guys think of booby traps?”

Wildfire didn’t speak up much, watching the flow of planning with worried eyes, and Eren was lost in his own little corner of gloom, shoulders hunched. For Eren this was personal, and any moment now he’d throw himself into the argument insisting that they bring Levi back no matter what – and what would that do to Levi, if they succeeded?

_Showdown in the rain_ , Levi had said. Was that truly the only option?

“What if he doesn’t go back to being a supervillain?” Erwin said slowly, surprised at the sentiment coming from his own mouth. Silence spread at his words and the rest of the team turned their heads to him, some surprised, some hopeful.

“He’s always said he would run,” Erwin continued. “What if he comes back to us? Titan, you said yourself that sometimes he needs time alone. Maybe he just needs more.”

“Yes, but-“

Odd, Erwin would have expected Titan to be all over the idea.

“But what if something _did_ happen?” Titan muttered, clearly torn.

“Eren,” Erwin said, gentling his tone. “I want to believe as much as you that he didn’t leave us voluntarily. But what _could_ have happened? How long was he alone?”

“Maybe twenty minutes,” Eren hazarded reluctantly.

“Twenty minutes isn’t much. Were there signs of a fight when you got back? Was something out of place? Did anybody come by? ”

“But…”

“I need _something_ ,” Erwin said plainly. “Because if we chase him, he’ll run.” But if they didn’t… Maybe Levi would return. He felt like a fool for clinging to the empty hope. Realistically, the most they could pray for was that he wouldn’t return to supervillainy.

Eren looked down, eyes still clouded and doubtful. “What if he _wants_ us to come after him? To show we care?”

“We’ve been feeding him and coddling him for a month now,” said Carnage, just a bit peevishly. “If that doesn’t show caring I don’t know what does.”

“We wait, then.” Erwin just hoped it would be enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter gives us a bit of a break - and is setting us up for the next part of the story ^^
> 
> Thanks to Zee and Irene for the handholding, and to all of you for the encouragement! 
> 
> Sooo guesses as to what happened? :P


	10. Interlude II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to all of you who commented/guessed/ and generally continue to support this fic! 
> 
> And since I know you all want to know what's going on, here's the next part~ Next chapter we will be back to proper, full-length chapters again :)

This is how it happened:

When Eren said something about going to help out some neighbor Levi nodded, listening with half an ear, but more preoccupied with wiping out enemies in front of him. When he paused to think about it, he felt stupid for getting invested in the silly game, but there was something about the asshole shapeshifter he was playing that got to him. Just, the ease with which he mowed through people in the streets.

Levi knew what that was like. He could kill so many people so easily. It was why he usually didn’t like fighting games.

Eren left the house, and Levi registered the click of the door with the back of his mind. It wasn’t locked, but like most houses, the outside handle wouldn’t turn. He’d open it for Eren when he came back because the kid had probably forgotten his keys.

It was a relief to be alone in the house. Levi was slowly getting used to having other people in his living space, but it sucked. There was too much about his environment that he couldn’t control these days. Couldn’t control his damn body. Lived in other people’s houses. Had the other people themselves always around, doing what they wanted and him unable to do anything about it.

If he could run it would be one thing, but he _couldn’t_.

Levi paused the game and considered his right hand, tried to let it flow into another shape. He could feel the shift starting, rippling up his arm, only to spark unpleasantly in his brain around the messed-up disturbance that was the wound in his side. He could probably force a shift if he wanted, but he still had that nasty patch of scales on his thigh. Three years back, running wounded from a battle he’d turned into a snake to escape, forcing himself into the shape despite his mind’s protests, and when his wound healed he found himself growing scales instead of pink skin. Of course Levi could shift them away, but they had fused with him, and de-shifting always brought them back.

He ran his right hand reflexively over his thigh, no sign of the blemish tangible under the training pants he was wearing. Turning into Eren had cured that – for now. Permanence was more than he could hope for.

Levi released the shift with a sigh and relaxed back into his own form. He might be able to do cosmetic changes without too much trouble, like to his face, if he wanted to leave.

But he didn’t need to go yet, he told himself. Maybe in a few days, but not yet. Soon, soon, he would definitely have to leave, before something happened.

He swallowed thickly and squeezed the controller.

It was a miracle nothing had gone wrong yet. Maybe it was because he wasn’t himself yet, he thought, his mind falling into the familiar groove. He was Eren, and Eren didn’t destroy everything he touched. But already his hair was darkening, and he was growing shorter than Eren, his features older, eyes less lively.

His time would come to end – and then what? He couldn’t be the person Erwin wanted him to be, the one Eren seemed to already see. It had been too late for him from the moment he had torn his way out of his mother’s stomach, the monster horror movies were made about. If he stopped doing – _being_ a villain, being a _supervillain_ , what _would_ he do? He had no skills besides killing. Hadn’t even finished high school.

And he needed money. It was the only recompense available to him.

Damn. He didn’t even feel like playing anymore. Levi saved the game and sat staring at the dark screen, controller still held loosely in his hands. He needed to stop thinking about it. Thinking of the future was no good, sent his mind spiraling in dizzying circles that led nowhere.

Eren had better come back soon-

The tap on the door was such a relief (ha, forgot his keys!) that Levi was across the room and had thrown open the door before he registered that the knock was not Eren’s.

He would have reacted, then, felt a spike of nauseating adrenaline, but he found the room spinning and his vision growing black. There was a dart in his chest, he registered, some kind of drug – his system should be fighting it but wasn’t – a shifter-resistant drug… they had known… had to…

His body collapsed before his mind faded to darkness. The walls and ceiling spun dizzily before steadying, and the pain of hitting the ground was far-off and blunted. Even the sour fear he knew he should be feeling was distant. The last thing he saw was a glimpse of a tiny blonde girl who looked down on him with ice-cold blue eyes.

\---

His neck hurt.

Something rough and unyielding was pressed against the right side of his face.

His eyelids were heavy, rolling shut with the temptation of sleep, though he knew he shouldn’t because…

A faint rumble reached his hears, matching a constant soft vibration that shook his body.

Levi awoke to the realization that he was in a car, head against the window in a parody of sleep. His lap and part of the car door were the only things visible, he found, because his eyes didn’t seem to work properly. None of his body worked properly.

Panic, long-unfamiliar, turned his stomach. He tried to move his arms and legs – nothing. Tried to force a shift, but his body wasn’t reacting, his mind a mess. All he managed to do was set aflare the wound in his side, which drew a small grunt of pain.

“Already?” a startled female voice said. “You should have been under longer.”

Levi realized his mistake when he felt the prick of a needle in his thigh, and slipped back into oblivion.

\---

This time, when he awoke, he remembered to be careful. He didn’t move, tried to keep his breathing slow and shallow. The car was at rest, the music off, and the thick smell of gasoline meant they were at a gas station. Stopped for gas or food, he didn’t know. _Escape_ pounded at his temples.

The girl wasn’t in the car at the moment. If Levi could somehow get out, he didn’t like relying on others but if he could alert people – though it was late at night, he could hear other cars. He had to get away before she-

She what? Who was she? Why had she kidnapped him? How had she known to find him at Eren’s house?

A chill rushed down Levi’s back at the realization that it probably wasn’t him she was after at all, but Eren. Whatever nefarious plan she had for Eren couldn’t be implemented, because she had him instead.

And Eren must be safe at home, unharmed.

Levi tried to relax, did his best to force his pulse down to neutral again. This was good, he thought tentatively. If he was here instead of Eren, Eren couldn’t be hurt. A flush of excitement dispelled the chill, but left him just as queasy as before. Helping Eren, saving Eren. That was a good thing. Doing the right thing never ended well.

Giving up control never ended well.

He tried not to let memories of Isabel and Farlan flood his mind, forcefully pushed back how they’d trusted him, how they’d looked at him after seeing what he was, how the bullets meant for him had torn through --

Maybe they were still alive, he liked to think. He’d run and not seen them since, cut all ties and never searched, because the first time had so probably ended in death (Farlan’s blood in red puddles on a sidewalk, Isabel’s scream etched into his memories). Levi was a born killer; he knew that. He’d known it growing up in the dark basement, known it when he’d killed a child on the playground with a spike through the chest in a fight over a toy, and only learned to accept it when the Underground had taken him in and taught him to be the weapon he so clearly was.

He still didn’t know why he’d run from them.

Or rather, he did know. It was the same misguided hope that kept him at Erwin’s, week after week, that kept him going to Eren’s to play games and wash dishes with Petra. Being the monster under the bed was lonely sometimes.

The car door slammed open and shut, rocking the vehicle. The girl was back; his opportunity was gone. The engine turned over, and with it the trepidation returned.

He hadn’t made a choice. He wasn’t _doing_ anything, he thought. Inaction might not go so wrong as his actions always did.

“Sorry about this, Eren,” the girl muttered, confirming his suspicions. “But we need you.”

Levi tried to shift under his clothes, scarring be damned. He wasn’t fast enough, not yet, and this kill had to be one hit for it to work. She had to die believing it was Eren in her car. Only then would Eren be safe.

A bit longer, though, and maybe he could—

Another needle pricked his thigh, spreading dull paralysis up his body. Levi’s heart sank. He’d fought so hard for discipline, because killing people on purpose was preferable to killing them by accident. He’d locked himself away and trained and trained so he’d never be caught off guard, so nobody would ever take that hard-won control away from him. He was probably in trouble, he thought dimly.

Growing up he had never expected help; only in his teens did he learn that there were people who existed in order to save others. He hadn’t considered it in years, but now he allowed himself the thought, because he had no other recourse: Maybe somebody would come rescue him.

(they wouldn’t, he knew. It was better for them if he died. Maybe Erwin was tired of him and wanted to get rid of him – but Erwin had promised, he’d promised -)

(nobody would come for him because heroes never saved him they never saved the bad guys)

(help)

**Author's Note:**

> (thanks for reading~ fic tag on tumblr is 'fic: hell of a lot more', for anybody who wants to check it out there :)


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